A suicide blast in the Afghan capital wounded three NATO soldiers and three civilians on Monday, while officials said 14 people had died in other attacks blamed on the extremist Taliban movement.
The bomber blew himself up near a NATO convoy on a busy road in Kabul that is frequently used by international troops in the east of the heavily secured and increasingly jittery city. Three passers-by were wounded and three NATO peacekeepers had minor injuries. Police arrested a second man with explosives and wires on his body at the bomb site, said criminal investigation police chief Ali Shah Paktiawal, alleging that the man had planned to attack him when he arrived at the scene to investigate the first blast.
Sources said the wounded soldiers were French but the French military said it could not comment immediately. A purported spokesman for the Taliban, Mohammad Hanif, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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Up to 40 people were killed in clashes between rebel groups in south Darfur, forcing foreign aid workers to abandon the Greida displaced persons' camp, the Guardian newspaper reported on its Web site on Monday.
An African Union spokesman in Khartoum confirmed a flare-up in fighting in Greida, but put the death toll at 11 people, mostly civilians. Fighters loyal to the Justice and Equality Movement, one of two rebel factions that did not sign a May peace agreement, used mortars and heavy machines to attack men from a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), which signed the deal, the report said. The report said the fighting appears to be the worst since the peace deal was signed in May.
"Exchanges of fire lasted for three to four hours. It was only a mile from the town. It happened on Friday," the Guardian quoted an official from one of several aid agencies which withdrew from Greida to Nyala, the regional capital, at the weekend.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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At least 20 people have been killed and more than 40 others were wounded in the second day armed clashes happened in central Somalia between tribal Somali militiamen, as medical officials confirmed on Sunday. It was the bloodiest battle in Somalia central Galgadud region since the Islamic Courts seized control of the capital early June. The fighting took place in an area between Daader and Qorof villages near Adado town in Galadud region and close to the border with Ethiopia between Marehan sub-clan of Darod tribe and Saleban sub-clan of Hawiye tribe.
The cause of the latest fighting was reported to be linked with dispute over pastoral land, with both sub-clans had been hostile to each other for decades.
The death and the injuries were from both sides. It is not yet known who first began the war. The cause of the latest fighting was reported to be linked with dispute over pastoral land, with both sub-clans had been hostile to each other for decades. Some reports say the clashes were based on clan reprisal between the two clans who both are pastorals. During the war, both rival militias used all sorts of weapons including artillery fires.
The Islamic Courts in Adado town sent troops to the villages raged by the war to mediate between the fighting tribal militias. The fighting stopped itself and there has been ongoing efforts to resolve the conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
pastoral clans and artillery fire. You don't often hear both those phrases together
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/03/2006 8:40 Comments ||
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#2
Welcome to the 21 Century, tribal warfare in Somalia, they replaced spears with artillery barrages.
Posted by: Joe of the Jungle ||
10/03/2006 9:03 Comments ||
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#3
LOL FrankG!! - there's something about that phrase "pastoral clans and artillery fire. You don't often hear both those phrases together" that just cracks me up ;)
(perhaps it's the 5 pints...)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/03/2006 20:40 Comments ||
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#4
have another, on me, Tony :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/03/2006 21:08 Comments ||
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Somalia's Islamic Courts are using all available weapons and curses to harm their opponents as much as possible. These well organized men have been known for using overwhelming power to intimidate and crush their opponents when grabbing new land. But what if the enemy is in faraway Canada? The answer is simply curse em!
Mr. Amin Amir was told to stop portraying the Islamic courts the way he does in a week or Allahs unforgiving anger will be bestowed open him.
The most popular Somali artist who resides in Canada creates humor cartoons depicting Somalias current political climate. Mr. Amin Amir whose website is www.aminarts.com was told to stop portraying the Islamic courts the way he does in a week or or Allahs unforgiving anger will be bestowed open him. This threat came from the head of the Islamic Courts Sheik Sharif last Friday.
Although the deadline is still days away, Mr. Amir seems not to be concerned about the invisible power the courts claim to use against him if he doesnt stop ridiculing and depicting the courts the way the way he usually does.
No political figure or group in Somalia is safe from Mr. Amirs pencil and the crowds love him. Many Somali websites and newspapers use Amins artistic cartoons as syndicated work. He added English translation of some of the balloon quotes recently. What the courts dont understand is that Mr. Amin translates what the masses are saying into cartoons. He makes fun of politicians and the rest love it. Ethiopian prime minister who is the Islamic Courts' sworn enemy gets most of Amins pencil diatribe and he never complained, at least publicly.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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#3
The Ethiopian President is a politician and knows that if he complains, the comedian will just make more fun of him. So by not complaining, he decreases the volume. The Islamists are physically incapable of such a nuanced response to comedy.
#4
I was not aware that Allah took orders from Sheik Sharif. Isn't there something in Islam about not bossing around the Biggest of All Kahunas? The Creator of the Universe hardly seems well cast as a sort of Paulie Walnuts hitthug, but if this guy falls into yawning chasm or is "accidently" struck by lightning next week, we know who to talk to. Yeah, that's right, I'm looking at you, Sharif. You better watch your step.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
10/03/2006 2:45 Comments ||
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#5
Hum, in his shoes, I'd be concerned by the fact allan's Curse(Tm) might take the form of Spontaneous Jihad (pat. pending) by a canadian Moderate Muslim of somali background, instead of a lightning strike or a rain of stones.
#6
It is also true that the jihadi tyranny in Somalia, has supporters here. I have spoken to some. The Somali taxi driver campaign against booze, began when the jihadis took over Somalia. They should take their ethics back where they came from.
#8
"Mr. Amin Amir.......was told to stop portraying the Islamic courts the way he does in a week or or Allahs unforgiving anger will be bestowed upon him"
Normally I'd ignore this story, but one thing caught my eye. 'Allah' apparently is whatever or whomever the muzzies want him to be. They make him up as they go along.
#10
The little 'uns have already seen the Bug Eyed Monster in the Defender-Scimitar & Times-Picayune thread. They're already permanently scarred before being exposed to lotp's medically correct terminology. Besides, they need to understand that there are risks associated with using modern technology. ;-)
CHUADANGA, Oct 2: Regional commander of an outlawed party was killed in a shootout between his cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion members at Purbapara Adibari in Boalmari upazila early Monday, reports UNB.
That makes him a good commie
Witnesses said RAB arrested Iqtiar, 35, commander of Purba Banglar Communist Party (Janajuddha) from Amirpur in Sadar upazila on Saturday.
"Howdy, Iqtiar. Mind coming down to the station for a chat? Didn't think so."
Acting on his statement, the RAB personnel recovered a local-made pistol and two rounds of bullet from behind the Shahid Minar of Nilmoniganj High School Monday at about 1am.
"Ok, the gun was right where you said it was, Iqtiar. Let's get back in the car."
"You mean, you're not going to kill me?"
"Don't be silly. It's not your time."
But later when they reached Purbapara Adibari field along with Iqtiar at about 2am,
"Iqtiar?"
"Yes?"
"Time's up."
"Huh?"
Iqtiar''s accomplices opened fire on the RAB troops, forcing them to fire back.
"BANG!"
Iqtiar was caught in the shootout while trying to flee and died on the spot.
"...rose..bud.."
Later, his body was sent to morgue for autopsy.
"Paging Doctor Quincy, you have a delivery to sign for."
Police said Iqtiar was wanted in a number of cases, including murder.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/03/2006 07:51 ||
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#1
You forgot to mention "on twelve systems" at the end of the last sentence...
#2
Do the commanders of Purba Banglar Communist Party put up neon signs on their houses in whatever Bangladeshi shithole they live in? They seem awfully easy to find.
DHAKA: Bangladesh's Supreme Court has ordered a stay of execution for four Islamist militants sentenced to death for bomb attacks that killed at least 30 people last year, a court official said on Sunday. The militants included Shayek Abdur Rahman and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, heads of two outlawed Islamist groups seeking the introduction of sharia-based Islamic law in Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy.
The two, who head the groups Jamaatul Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, appealed for clemency on Friday. Their petition is to be heard on Oct. 15 and execution has been suspended until its settlement, said Fazlul Karim, secretary of the Supreme Court. Bombs wrecked the judges' car as they headed to court.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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IRAQI officers loyal to Saddam Hussain filmed their cold-blooded murder of two British bomb disposal officers who were captured after a roadside ambush.
An inquest was told that Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth, 36, and Sapper Luke Allsopp, 24, thought that they were being taken to hospital for treatment, but instead they were moved to a compound run by Saddams military intelligence. The harrowing ordeal lasted for hours until Iraqi agents killed the pair. The soldiers were buried in a shallow grave.
At the inquest yesterday the coroner, Andrew Walker, severely criticised army chiefs for failing to ensure that the soldiers avoided driving into alZubayr, which is known as a lawless town. Other British convoys had already been attacked there. Mr Walker said The failure to adequately plan for and warn of the dangers was, in my view, a contributory factor to their deaths.
Last night the Ministry of Defence denied that their commanders had been negligent, saying that members of the convoy had been given a detailed briefing of the risks they faced. A spokesman said: During operations, by the nature of the complex, dangerous and challenging environment in Iraq, no amount of preparation or familarisation will entirely diminish the level of risk.
The deaths in March 2003 led to a public row when Tony Blair accused the Iraqis of executing the soldiers. The Army had told next of kin that the men had been killed instantly in combat. Details revealed during the two-day inquest in Oxfordshire appear to suggest that Mr Blair was given an accurate version within hours of the killings. The coroner ruled that the men had been unlawfully killed.
Iraq signed the Geneva Convention in 1956, I believe. Didn't help them, did it Senator McCain?
Posted by: Steve ||
10/03/2006 12:49 ||
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#3
Please, do tell me, when exactly was GC upholded by a single adversary of any given western army since say WWII? The only one I can think of is the argentineans during the Falkland war. Not a single commie "people's liberation army", not a single muslim army, not a single african army.
Gc is a one-way street, unless you're dealing with an another western army (heck, even the germans during WWII were more observant of GC, at least with allied prisoners, than any of those mentioned above)... and it is the way it should be, for the tranzis, IE an another cord holding down Gulliver, western soldiers (especially US ones, or worse, joooooos) fighting with an arm tied behind their back and under the microscopical scrutiny of the msm (think of the coverage of even one single paleo death, or each and every bomb going off in irak), while there's NO expectation of "fair play" or basic decency from their adversaries.
Btw, Captain Ed has a good observation, the UK really should prosecute saddam, if only out of respect both for those two men, and to respect the spirit of the GC by making the iraqis pay the piper.
#4
Gc is NOT a one way street. Problem is we have not enforced them. Because GC essential premise is that violating them must not pay: if you violate them you are no longer protected by them AND you are a war criminal who can be shot in the act.
#5
Right on anon5089. Actually none of our enemies have adhered to the Geneva Convention. Don't forget about Japan's and Germany's many atrocities. NoKors- no, Chi Com- no, Vietnamese- no. It's not worth the paper it's printed on.
#6
Fuck this 'detailed briefing of the risks they faced' - they were murdered in cold blood. Level alZubayr, salt it and seed it with anthrax. Execute the murderers, dismember the corpses and bury the bits in the rubble.
Why should we abide by the GC?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/03/2006 20:35 Comments ||
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#8
It couldn't possibly be Zenster in disguise, there aren't any names in boldface, and he generally misspells cusswords to be polite. Besides, Tony(UK) has 5 pints in him at the moment, and strong opinions always. ;-)
(AP) North Korea said Tuesday that it will conduct a nuclear test to bolster its self-defense capability amid what it calls increasing U.S. hostility toward the communist regime.
"The DPRK will in the future conduct a nuclear test under the condition where safety is firmly guaranteed," the North's Foreign Ministry said in the official English translation of its statement, using the acronym for country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The statement gave no precise date of when a test might occur.
Pyongyang has said it has nuclear weapons, but is not known to have conducted any test to prove its claim. It has not mentioned a nuclear test in previous public statements.
"The U.S. extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defense," said the statement, carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
The North's "nuclear weapons will serve as reliable war deterrent for protecting the supreme interests of the state and the security of the Korean nation from the U.S. threat of aggression and averting a new war and firmly safeguarding peace and stability on the Korean peninsula under any circumstances," the statement said.
Multilateral talks on the North's nuclear program have been stalled for almost a year. Pyongyang has boycotted the six-nation talks to protest U.S. financial restrictions imposed for its alleged illegal activity, including money laundering and counterfeiting.
The North said Tuesday that its ultimate goal is "to settle hostile relations between the DPRK and the U.S. and to remove the very source of all nuclear threats from the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity," accusing the U.S. of posing a nuclear threat in the region.
#3
Kimmie thinks if he can ratchet up the extortion high enough, we will pull a Jimmy Carter and give him lots of goodies. But Bush don't play that game.
More interesting is what will Japan do. Will they find that somehow their missing plutonium has spontaneously assembled themseves into baseball size cores? Same for the next SK government.
Posted by: ed ||
10/03/2006 8:31 Comments ||
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Bah. The article on Yoduk Story, a defector's play about the North's brutality, said "South Korean officials tried to shut down the play, fearful of offending the North." You don't have any hands free to build anything when you're busy bending over and grabbing your ankles like that. SKor is ready to assimilate.
#6
That's true for the current SK gov. But I don't they will win the next elections.
Posted by: ed ||
10/03/2006 9:49 Comments ||
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I'm over here in South Korea. All of you pay close attention to this salient point because this is the real explanation for the South Korean attitude. Nothing, and I repeat, NOTHING, is more important to the SKors than this: NORTH KOREA CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO COLLAPSE BECAUSE THEN SOUTH KOREA WILL HAVE TO FOOT THE BILL FOR ITS RECONSTRUCTION! Anything else given as a reason for South Korean actions by anyone else is simply smoke and mirrors.
South Korea is happy--make that deliriously overjoyed--that it's now beginning to live the good life. THAT IS ALL THEY CARE ABOUT HERE. PERIOD. FULL STOP. END OF STORY.
They don't give a damn about the starving North, they don't give a damn about helping the Americans, they don't give a damn about anything other than keeping the status quo, thereby making sure they don't get handed that ABSOLUTELY F***ING HUGE NKOR RECONSTRUCTION BILL!
They KNOW (and they're right, too) it would sink their country back into the abject poverty they just escaped from and there's no way in Hell they're going to accept that willingly. Their attitude is 100 percent pure self-interest completely undiluted by any impurities such as a sense of obligation to those who saved them from Communism or sympathy for those fellow Koreans living under a maniacal, mass-murdering tyrant. That's why they act the way they do and why anyone who expects anything different is dreaming. NKor will probably come down in the next decade of its own weight and then SKor will have to pay the piper anyway, but they won't face up to that until they have absolutely no other choice.
Posted by: mac ||
10/03/2006 10:15 Comments ||
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In other words Mac SKOR is very much like the Democratic Party in the USA.
As long as the Elite has their good life who cares about the average person or 'minority'....
#10
Really good point, mac -- I believe it. Do you know, is Germany's experience a factor in their thinking? That's where I am, and there's no better way to get a (west) German ranting than to mention the Solidaritaetsteuer (reunification tax). Many regard their cousins as that "giant sucking sound in the east."
Understandably, as all those years of communism gave Ossies a handout mentality -- a grossly inflated sense of entitlement that makes many of them personally infuriating and repulsive.
#11
It's sad -- one (west) German family I know told me of relatives coming to visit shortly after reunification. They awoke one morning to find the relatives going about the house with a sack, stuffing items into it. Their reasoning was that westerners were so well off, it was their obligation to let easterners to literally come take their stuff.
They had zero comprehension that westerners are well off because they work for it, and that this can require considerable effort in a competitive economy. And when this was explained, they got angry and insisted that west German wealth all just fell out of the sky.
My friends got their stuff back, but they don't speak to those relatives anymore, and you can imagine how they feel about paying the reunification tax.
#12
ExJag, that's a very interesting anecdocte; by the way, this view of the West and it's wealth is also prevalent in "developping countries", I think. The West truly is an isolated island.
#14
It would seem to me if a Coalition of the Willing (Korean Peninsula Division) would get together and plan how to finance reconstruction once NORK falls, the burden would be spread around and SKor would achieve its goals and not break the treasury. DO NOT I REPEAT DO NOT UTILIZE THE ASSHATS ASSETS OF THE UN.
However, if the SKORS want to play their little appeasement games with the NORKS, they can do it on their own nickel, and not on ours. We are broke.
Just a suggestion for RB'ers to chew on.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK ||
10/03/2006 12:51 Comments ||
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#15
The SKORS believe it's a zero-sum game. They don't realize it, but they're playing for zero...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/03/2006 14:47 Comments ||
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#16
Thank you Jimmy Carter and Madeleine Albright.
#18
First off, thank you very much for some on-the-spot insight, Mac. Not a single media outlet is pipelining that story. Maybe you could tell us what the South Koreans think about suddenly having North Korea become the odd province of communist China. That has got to be one of the most likely outcomes of any collapse scenarios.
I'll also go with Alaska Paul on a coalition to rebuild a reunified Korea. It is absolutely critical that communism end in North Korea. If you can even call hereditary Stalanist rule a form of communism. We must put the skids on any Chinese expansionism. This is vital to containment of the Chinese communist threat. No matter how much RasPutin dearly deserves a nice asskicking by his dear fellow communist whores comrades, neither North Korea, Siberia nor anywhere else can be allowed to fall into communist hands.
They awoke one morning to find the relatives going about the house with a sack, stuffing items into it.
exJAG, over here in America, such people aren't called "relatives". They're known as "yet-to-be admitted hospital patients".
#19
We should accept the facts they have it and deal with it.
I do not agree. I think it would best serve our interests to immediately cripple their weapons test site before they can complete any testing.
Once North Korea demonstrates credible possession of nuclear weapons and the ability to effect actual detonation of them, it changes everything. They suddenly have much more leverage in any talks and their ability to bully Korea increases just that much more.
Of even greater importance is how North Korea would instantly improve its ability to market their nuclear technology to potential clients. A successful atomic test would be a huge sales tool in their proliferation drive. Rogue nations and terrorist regimes would come flocking to their door. We need to break their toys in a big bad way. Better that North Korea's actual ability remain an uncertainty than for it to become a known and bankable factor in future dealings.
#21
exJAG, over here in America, such people aren't called "relatives".
Sometimes they are, unfortunately. An elderly relative of mine, one of the few on that side of the family, had a couple heirlooms she meant me to have when she died. They weren't worth much in $$ but meant a lot to me emotionally. (She was my great-aunt, my mother's mother's sister, and had no children of her own.)
When she died her husband's sister fed him a double dose of painkillers and while he slept them off for two days, emptied the apartment of all valuables and most everything else except his own personal things. He was in tears when I came to visit, because the table linens etc. that my great-aunt had set aside for me were gone -- and those were all that remained physically to connect with my mother. What a greedy, self-serving and small person the sister was!
I confess to a little satisfaction when she found out that all of their savings and their insurance monies were willed to their church, where my great-aunt had been organist for decades.
#22
A successful atomic test would be a huge sales tool in their proliferation drive
Yes -- and they are desperate for cash since we shut down the money laundering chain that brought them their drug etc. income.
Re: stealth missiles, there are to my knowledge (but someone post if I'm wrong) no acknowledged capabilities of this sort in our arsenal. There are several technical issues with this approach, including how to hide the launch from satellites and other observation, IIRC.
#23
sub-launched, ground-hugging cruises are deniable as long as they're cleaned of any ID's (not painted on post-explosion. i.e.: "American civilian baby-killer missile #100547697")
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/03/2006 16:41 Comments ||
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#24
Ex-JAG: yes, they are very much aware of the German experience. I've read numerous times over here that even though W. Germany was the richest nation in Europe, and E. Germany was the richest nation in the Bloc, the reunification costs crippled West Germany for a decade and that the Germans are still directing HUGE sums to the East. The next sentence usually goes something like "North Korea, one of the poorest nations on the planet, would cost exponentially more to reconstruct..." Oh yes, they know all about that here and they want no part of it, thank you very much.
Zenster: yes, they are aware of China's having designs on chunks of NKor and they don't like it much, but I don't think there's a great deal they can do about it other than talk. There is also a question about whether China wants to start picking up the tab for bringing NKor out of the Stone Age either. They don't seem at all happy with the idea of several million starving NKors headed in their direction after a collapse.
What these people want is to be Luxembourg. Unfortunately for them their neighborhood is a little too rough for that.
Posted by: mac ||
10/03/2006 18:36 Comments ||
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#25
Thank you, mac. Someone needs to make very clear to South Korea that having China on their doorstep is merely a prelude to being absorbed by the communists. This is waaaaay too much like NATO in that America is being depended upon to foot the bill for military protection even as those we shield pursue selfserving and ultimately counterproductive ends. South Korea must be told to pick up the ideological slack or risk being abandoned to the less-than-tender mercies of communist China. Why shelter a country from itself when it actively wants to commit suicide?
#26
There is also a question about whether China wants to start picking up the tab for bringing NKor out of the Stone Age either.
I don't think they will. They will seal the border, install a 'cooperative' government (Chinese, but with a Korean face), and have said government beg for international assistance.
The only thing from China into the new province would be troops, bureacrats and support equipment. The only thing coming out would be raw materials (at a far greater ratio to 'pay' for the incoming).
#27
They will seal the border, install a 'cooperative' government (Chinese, but with a Korean face), and have said government beg for international assistance.
With all due respects, Pappy, that amounts to nothing more than SSDD (Same Shit Different Day). We must avoid this at all costs. Right down to financing the rehabilitation of North Korea under South Korean rule. Anything, absolutely anything, is better than another round of communist mismanagment in this beleaguered nation.
#28
In relation to what communisism does to a country.
Cuban/Americans what have managed to go to Cuba to visit relatives and comeback say it would take a long time to restore Cuba to a viable economy. They've been under the system so long without incentives to work, that they've forgotten how.
They estimate it would take another generation to get it back into working condition.
Posted by: Phil ||
10/03/2006 14:12 ||
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Pope protesters' hijack airliner
Passengers aboard the plane have managed to phone out
A Turkish airliner flying from Tirana to Istanbul has been hijacked and flown to Brindisi in southern Italy in an apparent protest against the Pope.
It sent out an SOS twice in Greek airspace, and both Greece and Italy scrambled fighter jets to escort it before it landed in Brindisi.
All the Turkish Airlines plane's 107 passengers - including world beauty contestants - are said to be unhurt. BBC Linky
#2
Okay Turks: Release the beauty queens and all non-muslims. You can keep all the muslims on board as hostages plus we'll cater a nice ramadan dinner after sunset replete with sweets and copies of the koran. Deal?
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/03/2006 15:28 Comments ||
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#3
Now they're saying it was a Christian who wanted help from the Pope to avoid serving in the Turkish military.
#5
First it's hijackers, now it's bloody CHRISTIANS seeking ASYLUM. Make up your mind. Information got spewed out before it was confirmed and you got our hopes up Islam made impression by threatening Rome in not so subtle way. I for one was hoping for a Edict against letting muslims near the front of an airplane.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/03/2006 17:24 Comments ||
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#6
from jpal's link (article updated):
...two Turkish hijackers who diverted a Turkish airliner to the southern Italian airport of Brindisi on Tuesday handed themselves over to police some two hours after landing. Authorities in Istanbul identified one of the two hijackers as Hakan Eknci and the other only by his first name Mahmut.
A Turkish airliner flying from Tirana to Istanbul has been hijacked and flown to Brindisi in southern Italy, media in Turkey and Greece report.
It sent out an SOS twice in Greek airspace, and Athens scrambled four fighters to escort it to Brindisi, a Greek official told Reuters.
The Turkish Airlines plane is carrying at least 107 passengers.
Unconfirmed reports say there are two hijackers and they are protesting about plans for a papal visit to Turkey.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan ||
10/03/2006 12:18 ||
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#1
Heard on Fox it was resolved though.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/03/2006 13:47 Comments ||
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#2
Where O where do we get these journalists? An SOS ya say, with radioman Sparky working for Marconi ya say? How about a Mayday message? That is what modern mariners of the sea and of the air call it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK ||
10/03/2006 17:35 Comments ||
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#3
Later reports indicate that it was a Turkish Christian who didn't want to be drafted into the Turkish (Muslim) army. I'd take this second story with (another) grain of salt. Time to invoke the 48 hour rule.
Italian police on Monday issued six arrest warrants - three of which were served - and announced they had dismantled a terrorist cell suspected of having financed two terror attacks near Algiers last year in which 20 people died. The group, made up mainly of Algerians, was allegedly close to the Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has recently sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda, and to the Armed Islamic Group (GIA).
One of the suspected militants is Mejri Afif, a Tunisian, who was arrested in Switzerland while Ahmed Nacer and El Heit Ali were already in jail on different charges. The other three suspects are reportedly still at large. The cell had allegedly funded the Algerian militant groups through shops in Italy, raising a reported 2 million euros in three years. It was reportedly led by Djamel Lounici, a former member of the now dissolved Algerian Islamic Salvation Front, arrested last year on arm trafficking charges.
The militants reportedly operated in the northern Lombardy and Liguria regions and in Campania, in southern Italy, as well as in Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands. In July, police arrested four suspected members of GSPC who were allegedly preparing terrorist operations in Algeria and in Iraq.
The GSPC, Algeria's largest outlawed militant group, has been operating since 1996. Earlier this year, it rejected an amnesty offered by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika aimed at ending years of bloodshed during which a reported 200,000 people have died. The GSPC grew out of another of Algeria's leading militant groups, GIA, held responsible for the nail bomb attack on a Paris metro in 1995 as well as many attacks on civilian and military targets in Algeria. In contrast to the GIA, the GSPC reportedly gained popular support by vowing to avoid civilian targets inside Algeria - a promise it has not kept.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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Some UN relief money was channelled through charities associated with extremist jihadi groups in the wake of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, a BBC investigation has found.
The quake killed 79,000 people, and left 11,000 children orphaned last October. More than two million people lost their homes.
The BBC has discovered that one of the charities linked with extremists is now using its position to gain access to orphaned or fatherless children.
In the days following the catastrophic earthquake, the government of Pakistan promised that all such children would be looked after either by their extended family or the state.
It is difficult to imagine the scale of the destruction last October. Many of the survivors told me they thought it was the end of the world - literally.
There followed a mass mobilisation by ordinary Pakistanis, non-governmental organisations and Muslim groups to help the survivors. Various charities associated with militant groups also responded.
They included the al-Rashid Trust, which is banned by the UN Security Council and accused of being a conduit for al-Qaeda financing. The group is also on Pakistan's own terrorism watch list.
But the UN on the ground delivered aid to relief camps controlled by al-Rashid - tents, trucks, medicine, blankets and schools.
UN agencies also worked with Jamaat ud-Dawa, another charity which the US state department claims has close associations with the outlawed militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Jamaat denies it has any association with Lashkar, which has been linked to a series of attacks on civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir, as well as attacks on civilians and US troops in eastern Afghanistan.
UN denial
Jamaat ud-Dawa's publications include praise for violent jihad (holy war), as well as venomous attacks on Hindus, Jews and Western aid agencies.
I asked the UN's humanitarian coordinator, Jan Vandemoortele, why they had worked with such extremist groups.
"No, we never worked with them. We were active in the camps that were run by them," he told the BBC's File on Four programme.
"From a humanitarian perspective we did not take a position that we would leave those people aside. We knew those people needed help. We intervened but we never had any direct relationship with those groups."
The UN says it was a matter of life and death but what's interesting is that Jamaat ud-Dawa and al-Rashid Trust and their brand of extremist Islam never had a big presence in these areas before the earthquake.
But their relief efforts - and the aid they got from international agencies - have really boosted their position locally.
One Jamaat leader told us that people were now trusting them with their children - they hadn't before the earthquake - and they had actively recruited hundreds of children left orphaned or fatherless.
He said they had already sent 400 such children under the age of nine to board at their madrassas, or religious schools, some hundreds of miles from their homes.
That's despite a Pakistan government promise a year ago that these vulnerable children would be looked after either by their extended families or by the state, not by outside agencies.
School song
Madrassas have not had a good press in the West in recent years, with some being linked to the Taleban and the recruitment of other militants.
But of course, the vast majority of madrassas in Pakistan are not controversial. And every Jamaat leader I spoke to kept reassuring me that their schools have a broad-based curriculum.
But at one of their schools in the town of Mansehra - set up initially with the help of the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef - primary children were singing a song at morning assembly which many might find disturbing.
It includes the line: "When people deny our faith, ask them to convert and if they don't, destroy them utterly."
I asked the Jamaat ud-Dawa spokesman, Abdullah Montazzer, why they were teaching such bloodthirsty songs to young children.
"No, they weren't singing that," he said. "Lots of infidels came in the aid effort and they weren't harmed. I don't believe these kids were singing these kind of songs."
I put it to him that virtually everyone I had spoken to in Pakistan said Jamaat and Lashkar were the same thing.
"We are not at all a militant organisation and we have no links with Lashkar at all."
'Backing terrorists'
Larry Robinson, who served as political counsellor at the US embassy in Islamabad until a year ago, says it is not so simple.
"The al-Rashid Trust was identified very early on after 9/11 as a major financial supporter of terrorist organisations, including al-Qaeda," he told the BBC.
"It was officially banned and shut down and yet it has continued to operate, and it remains one of the larger charitable organisations in Pakistan.
"More recently the United States has put Jamaat ud-Dawa on the same list although the UN has not yet done so. These are both quite substantial organisations that do a large amount of very legitimate charitable and disaster relief work.
But he says there is no doubt that Jamaat ud-Dawa is also involved in activities that are not purely humanitarian.
"Jamaat ud-Dawa has a relationship to Lashkar-e-Toiba very similar to that of Sinn Fein to the IRA."
'Distorted Islam'
Pakistan's government praised both Jamaat ud-Dawa and the al-Rashid Trust in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.
It said it was not aware of orphans being recruited to madrassas, but that it was monitoring the situation.
Interior Minister Aftab Mohammad Sherpao said the authorities could not take action against Jamaat ud-Dawa because the group had not been banned by the UN Security Council.
However, he said, the government would act if the group strayed beyond its humanitarian mission.
But should groups which espouse ideas of violent jihad be allowed to look after children at all - let alone those traumatised by the earthquake?
Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group, a research organisation dedicated to reducing conflict in the world, thinks not.
"It's the concept of violence being put in an acceptable religious form that I think is so incredibly dangerous - as dangerous as the physical training in the use of guns.
"It is accepting the concept of a very distorted version of radical Islam."
Posted by: john ||
10/03/2006 16:29 ||
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#5
No more aid of any sort to Muslim majority countries. Period. This is an established pattern and we are morons to think there is any way of changing it save by regime change and visiting death upon all practicioners of extemist Islam. Pakistan's earthquake aid will be used to breed up an entire generation of orphaned youth into becoming another human arsenal of murderous fanatics. These orphaned children are among the absolutely most vulnerable of all to psychotic Islamic programming. Better they should have died of exposure and famine than to wreak even more atrocities upon this world in the name of their detestable religion.
But at one of their schools in the town of Mansehra - set up initially with the help of the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef - primary children were singing a song at morning assembly which many might find disturbing.
It includes the line: "When people deny our faith, ask them to convert and if they don't, destroy them utterly."
I asked the Jamaat ud-Dawa spokesman, Abdullah Montazzer, why they were teaching such bloodthirsty songs to young children.
"No, they weren't singing that," he said. "Lots of infidels came in the aid effort and they weren't harmed. I don't believe these kids were singing these kind of songs."
I used to sing "All things bright and beautiful" at morning assembly - don't remember the destroyin' bits that well...
But I've changed over the last five years ... :>
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/03/2006 20:17 Comments ||
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#8
So, when UN staffers steal, it's to prevent the money falling into the hands of extemists?
#12
"No, we never worked with them. We were active in the camps that were run by them," he told the BBC's File on Four programme.
Oh. That explains everything. And here I was questioning your nobility.
I guess the money must've fell off one of your trucks every morning and they "found" it
Around 100 people from the Marri tribe surrendered on Monday. The tribesmen, led by 4 commanders, also handed over large number of anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers and a bulk of other weapons. The commanders from 12 sub-tribes of the Marri tribe were running four farrari camps, PTV reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Who are the Marri. And why do they have camps of fast Italian cars?
#2
Marris are one of the major Balochistan who are rebelling against Islamabad. Notice Perv has no problem killing a bunch of Bigtis and Marris (with US helicopters given to fight the Taliban) but the Pashtuns much too tough (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) for the Pak Army.
Posted by: ed ||
10/03/2006 8:39 Comments ||
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Law enforcement agencies have arrested 246 pro-Taliban Afghans in the last two months, a senior interior ministry official told Daily Times on Monday. He said the arrests were made during the campaign launched against Taliban operatives and Afghans supporting the Taliban. So far Pakistan has handed over 57 pro-Taliban Afghans to the government of Afghanistan, he added.
The countrywide campaign against the suspected Taliban supporters was launched in the backdrops of the intelligence agencies' reports that presence of pro-Taliban Afghans would cause serious security threats in Pakistan. The interior ministry had directed the provinces to monitor activities of Afghan refugees and to take prompt action against those involved in dubious activities. Following the directions, the provinces launched efforts to identify former operatives of the Taliban regime hiding in Pakistan disguised as refugees.
The official said the majority of pro-Taliban Afghans were those injured in clashes with security forces in Afghanistan. They entered Pakistan's province of Balochistan for medical treatment, but were arrested. Authorities concerned also warned private hospitals providing medical treatment to the injured Afghans. Hospitals were directed not to treat such people without seeing their medico-legal reports.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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Investigations into last year's Delhi blasts have shown that 37 Pakistani nationals were financing terror networks across India. Thirty-seven people -- all residents of Pakistan and active members of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) -- funded many operations in India, which involved heavy loss of life and property," reads a Delhi Police Special Cell chargesheet on the blasts that shook the capital's markets and crowded spots on Diwali and Id eve last year.
Huge amounts in dollars and riyals through hawala and foreign remittances were sent to LeT operative and October 29 blast accused Tariq Ahmed Dar's accounts in Delhi and Srinagar from these 37 sources to fund terror strikes, especially last year's blasts which killed 67 people in New Delhi, police said. Probe agencies are studying the probability if the same sources had funded the July 11 train blasts. "Many parallels can be drawn from both cases. The nature of funding largely shows a similar pattern... We are still trying to know whether the same sources had supplied the money for both strikes," a senior Delhi Police official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
By population India is the second-largest Muslim country in the world (once they get rid of the pesky infidel majority). Seriously, sooner or later I think India will face a very nasty civil/religious war. Like everywhere else, it's tough to tell the innocent from the guilty, so after enough instigation the retaliation will not bother to try to discriminate between the two, which will force however many or few innocent Muslims there are into actively participating in the war. So far the government is trying, seemingly successfully, to prevent such escalation.
(Ack - convoluted sentences. Sorry, don't have time to try to fix.)
CAIRO, Egypt - A top al-Qaida official warned Abu Musab al-Zarqawi six months before he was killed by a U.S. airstrike that he would be removed as the terror groups head in Iraq if he did not consult with the groups leadership on major issues.
An al-Qaida leader named Atiyah cautioned al-Zarqawi in an 11-page letter against the war he had declared on Shiite Muslims.
The letter also criticized attacks the Iraqi branch had carried out in neighboring countries an apparent reference to last years triple suicide attacks on hotels in the Jordanian capital of Amman that killed dozens.
Anyone who commits tyranny and aggression upon the people and causes corruption within the land and drives people away from us and our faith and our jihad and from the religion and the message that we carry, then he must be taken to task, Atiyah wrote, saying he was in the northwest Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan.
We must direct him to what is right, just, and for the best. Otherwise, we would have to push him aside and keep him away from the sphere of influence and replace him and so forth, he wrote.
Atiyah tells al-Zarqawi that on major issues he should consult with your leadership, Sheik Osama (bin Laden) and the doctor (Ayman al-Zawahri) and their brothers ... as well as your Mujahedeen brothers in Iraq.
Two government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, said the letter is believed to be authentic. They said Atiyah is considered to be bin Ladens emissary to Iraq and served as a link between the al-Qaida leader and al-Zarqawi.
It wasnt clear when Atiyah, a 37-year-old Libyan whose full name is Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, took over that role or precisely how close to bin Laden he is.
One of the officials said he is a religious scholar with knowledge of the Koran and Islamic law and a veteran of the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan. He joined al-Qaida in the early 1990s, when it was first formed, and spent some time in the mid-1990s in Algeria.
Atiyah is believed to be an explosives expert, the official said.
First revealed by Iraqs National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie on Sept. 18, The Washington Post reported in Mondays editions that the letter was the first document to emerge from what the U.S. military described as a treasure trove of information uncovered from Iraqi safe houses at the time of al-Zarqawis death.
Al-Zarqawi was asked in the letter to correspond with al-Qaida in Waziristan through reliable messengers and was told not to attack Sunni clerics in Iraq or abroad an apparent reference to the Sunni clerics who were assassinated after calling for Iraqis to take part in last years general elections.
The war is long and our road is long. What is important is to keep the good reputation of yourself, the mujahedeen and especially your group, Atiyah wrote.
The letter also praised al-Zarqawi, saying you have hurt America, the largest infidel Crusader forces in history.
It was dated the 10th of the Muslim month of Zhul Qadah, which was around mid-December last year and about six months before the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad.
#2
Where and how did we finally get such precise targeting info on Zark? It does raise the interesting possibility that annoyed AQ honchos had had enough.
#3
I seem to remember we followed his accountant when he dropped by with some papers to be signed, exJAG, then knocked on his door in our own charming way.
#5
The Jordanians had a lead on the accountant, which they passed to us. We tailed the accountant to ZMan's hideout, confirmed ZMan, and blew it {and him} up with precision munitions.
KHAN BANI SAAD, Iraq Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces detained two suspected insurgents and captured a sizable cache Sept. 29 in a combined operation in Khan Bani Saad, Iraq, south of Baqubah.
Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division and 1-68 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, made the find as part of ongoing operations in the town and surrounding villages.
The cache consisted of one rocket propelled grenade launcher, four RPG rounds, one sniper rifle, three hand grenades, seven AK-47s, several rounds of 7.62mm ammo and eight AK-47 magazines. The two detainees and the caches contents were taken to the IA compound in Khan Bani Saad for further questioning and a controlled destruction of the cache. If this is a 'sizable' cache, then the bad guys are in trouble. In any event, these bad guys seem real short of some basic supplies.
This successful find is part of an ongoing operation led by Iraqi Security Forces in Kahn Bani Saad to disrupt insurgents and their activities, demonstrate the determination and fortitude of the ISF in Diyala, and keep the community safe - allowing the safe return of displaced Iraqi civilians.
#5
"If this is a 'sizable' cache, then the bad guys are in trouble."
On the other hand, if the DoD starts making a habit of announcing every measely half-handful of 7.62mm ammo it finds, it's going to very quickly create the impression it's scraping the bottom of the barrel for "good news." And we sure as hell don't need THAT.
The AK47 fires 7.62x39mm, same as its predecessor the SKS. They don't say what kind of "sniper rifle" they found, but if it was the Dragunov SVD it most likely fires 7.62x54mm.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/03/2006 10:21 Comments ||
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#6
Maybe the key here is who the insurgents were.
For example, it would seem, judging from the fact that we *never* seem to capture any Iranian insurgents, that either
a) There aren't any,
b) They are really, really good at hiding,
c) We are very carefully not mentioning that they are Iranians,
d) We are not trying overly hard to capture them alive, or at least keep them alive after capture, or
e) Some of the above some of the time, except we ain't saying, and no comment.
#11
There's 3 different 7.62 rounds that are in common use.
7.62x39 This is the standard AK47/SKS round.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.62_x_39_mm
7.62x54R - This is the Russian sniper round used in the Dragunov sniper rifle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.62_x_54_mm_R
7.62x51 - This is 762NATO. It's very close to it's "English" cousin of .308Winchester.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.62_NATO
The 'OTHER' Russian round is
5.45x?? This is the round used in the AK74-short rifle (or whatever it's called.) It was mainly developed for paratroopers, I think.
I love wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.62_mm_caliber
#12
If that's what's passing for a weapons cache these days, either our Mil-press is hankering for good news, or the Insurgents are running out of supplies?
Only 4 RPG rounds?
No mortars? Or mines for IEDs?
Granted, that is plenty for a small squad to stage an ambush, but that generally isn't their strong point.
#13
There is also a 7.62x45 that the Czechs used in their SHE-52. A few of those turned up in unpleasantness a few years back in Granada. No a very handsome firearm. Photo at link:
#14
Anonymoose,
I think it is option c. Several Iraqi bloggers (the mesopotamian, hammorabi etc) have mentioned that several thousand Iranian special forces are in Iraqi jails. It seems they have been caught is sweeps on a fairly regular basis for the past 2 years.
I have been wondering why the US command in Iraq never mentions it.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
10/03/2006 12:01 Comments ||
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Frozen,
If you don't acknowledge capturing them then you don't have to account for their treatment. WE don't want them; the Iraqis, on the other hand, might just end up refilling one of those exhumed mass graves. A few years from now they get found and it's "Oops, we must have missed a few; bad Saddam." It's not pretty, but war is ugly.
#16
The Russians had a habit of making their rounds slightly larger than ours. That way they could use captured U.S. ammo (a little loose) and captured Russian ammo was useless to us (wouldn't fit).
#17
5.45x39, sometimes called 5.45x40 (mainly because it is actually 5.45x39.5).
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
10/03/2006 13:47 Comments ||
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#18
sometimes called 5.45x40 (mainly because it is actually 5.45x39.5).
Say what you want about the ruskies, but you've got to admire the dedication of people who bother themselves with designs with measurements of 0,5 milimeters (lemme see, about 1/50 of an inch), especially when you consider most of them are drunk most of the time.
#21
25.4 mm to the inch, .3048 meters to the foot. Both are exact conversions (in fact, they are equivalent). 3.28083989 feet to the meter is approximate.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/03/2006 15:47 Comments ||
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#22
but an inch is a malleable measurement. Just ask a guy how much he's packing....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/03/2006 15:53 Comments ||
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#23
Shieldwolf is correct with the 7.62 x 25, but I would like to include the CZ 52 Czech Semi auto pistol which takes this round as well.
My experience back in the day, before Mr. Lotp, is that far too many were eager to, um, volunteer that information, or at least hint that it was an impressive figure.
#25
"Check it out! Two physics texts, Calculus of Irregular Surfaces, "How to build a bridge so that it stays up under a brigade of tanks (WWII vintage)", two tickets to the ballet on Friday -- you want to come with me?, The Renaissance Artist: Studies in Light and Shade on Skin and Fabric... oh, yes, here are your socks that you left in gym when we were working on that double flip with a half twist. I promise to catch you next time -- really!!"
Well these days he often packs a .45 ACP at the range. Or, alternately, his Sig P232, which is a sweet concealed carry piece ... and which, although only a .380, does some very nice shooting.
Oh, you meant, hmmm ah ... Let's just say it's been a good 32 years so far ... LOL
Oh yeah, the REST of his pack would contain tools for his bikes, maybe a text or two in applied math, the Economist or a book on classical history and a carefully organized list of little items he wants to buy but won't make a special trip for.
#29
I bought a Romanian manufactured version of the Russian WW2 carbine (complete with bayonet) from Big 5 out here in CA for about $65. It's 7.62x54R (comes with a 4-rd box magazine plus one in the bolt - damn near perfect for stripper clips).
Sucker kicks like a mule (it also has a metal butt plate), but it is very accurate.
#30
Mr. lotp packs chocolate!?!?! I'm going to have to speak to Mr. Wife when he gets back from Switzerland on Sunday. I finally got him to carry granola bars in his car against low blood sugar when he's too busy talking in meetings to actually eat. He hasn't gotten as far as chocolate yet, except for the mandatory box when he flies through Brussels. ;-)
#31
Mr. Lotp is firmly of the opinion that chocolate is the 5th food group. You'll note that my contribution to the recipe book included chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butter frosting. It was tested on an expert group. ;-)
(AKI) - Some 790 victims - among them US soldiers, Iraqi policemen and members of the Shiite militias - have been killed by al-Qaeda in Iraq and its allies since June, the groups boast in a bloody balance sheet posted to the Internet on Monday. The Council of the Mujahadeen, which groups some eight Sunni insurgent groups, including al-Qaeda in Iraq, offers a precise breakdown of casualties inflicted, from 8 June, the day that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed, to 23 September in what they refer to as "Operation Blood Vengeance for Abu Musab."
That 'mission' concluded last week with the message from Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Zarqawi's successor. Al-Masri announced the launch of a new 'campaign' for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan entitled "Operation Outright Victory". The figures are invariably exaggerated for propaganda purposes, analysts believe, but give an idea of the commitment of the Iraqi insurgency groups on the ground.
They claim to have killed 390 'crusader' soldiers (from US and other foreign contingents) 270 'apostates' (Iraqi policemen and soldiers) and 130 Shiite militiamen from the Al-Mahdi Army as well as 23 from the Badr brigades. Most of these victims were caused by 35 suicide bombers in action during this period, while 95 were reportedly struck by snipers. Al-Qaeda also claims to have destroyed during this period 152 armoured vehicles, seven tanks, 12 trucks and eight cars used by the multinational contingent.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The terrorist's secret weapon in Iraq is: cash. Iranian and Saudi terror financiers have no problem in smuggling sufficient funds into Iraq, for use in bribing poorly paid government officials.
It is my belief that neutralizing Iran would discredit Saudi jihadism. The US hasn't been able to play both the Sunni and Shiite cards since 1979. Given a forced choice, the Sunnis could both deliver support and then help moves against Sunni terrorists. I don't trust any of them, but the Sunni-card is the best play.
#2
Snease -- You've posted this "Sunni card" thingy several times. On every occasion, including this one, it has made no sense to me.
The first sentence makes sense, of course, and is no surprise to anyone here - we get it. Money, oil money, is what brought these cretins back to life.
The second section is where the clarity goes *poof*. Let's step through it...
1) Taking down the Shia regime in Iran "discredits" Saudi Wahhabi (Sunni) jihadism? Is that what you're trying to say? How? Why? Clarify.
2) The Us hasn't been able to play both Shia and Sunni cards since 79? Huh? I presume you're referring to the Tehran embassy takeover, and the Shia having Khomeini back from exile to lead them in idiocy... Are you trying to say we haven't been able to play them off against each other since then? Explain - it's just noise. AFAICS.
3) Given a forced choice, the Sunnis could both deliver support and then help moves against Sunni terrorists. Geez. That just makes no sense.
4) I don't trust any of them, but the Sunni-card is the best play. Play? I have no idea what you're trying to say.
If you don't care to post clearly what you mean by this Sunni card stuff, then you're just wasting space every time you repeat it. I understand the players quite well. I'll understand your meaning when you state it clearly.
#3
convert the 790 victims to "Iraqi muslim civilians" and you'd be closer to the truth. Boy that's some score card! Gonna really endear yourselves with the population.....explain again why you're hiding "because of the overwhelming love and support of the people you're 'liberating'"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/03/2006 8:52 Comments ||
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#4
Wow in 3 1/2 months, the mujaheedin destroyed 1/4th of a heavy division's armour. Wow. Just wow. Guess Woodward is right. Bush has been hiding casualties from the voters. Another year of this and all the Americans in Iraq will have been killed at least twice over. Wow.
Posted by: ed ||
10/03/2006 9:09 Comments ||
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Looks like they're goin to the mattresses...
GAZA (Reuters) - Fatah gunmen threatened on Tuesday to kill leaders of the governing Hamas group, escalating a power struggle marked by the worst internal violence in Gaza and the West Bank since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994. Because this...is the business...we've CHOSEN...
Twelve Palestinians have been killed and more than 100 wounded in two days of clashes in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank between the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas. Scorecard! Get ya scorecard here!
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Fatah, said it held Hamas's Damascus-based political chief Khaled Meshaal, Interior Minister Saeed Seyam and senior Interior Ministry official Youssef al-Zahar responsible for the deaths."We in al-Aqsa announce, with all might and frankness, the ruling of the people in the homeland and in the diaspora, to execute the head of the sedition, Khaled Meshaal, Saeed Seyam and Youssef al-Zahar, and we will execute this ruling so those filthy people can be made an example," a statement said. Grrrrrr! Woof! Seeeeeethe! Death to...somebody!
Abbas has been locked in an increasingly bitter power struggle with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas over stalled efforts to form a unity government. C'mon, Ismail. Blood's bad for business.
Haniyeh, repeating a call for an end to internal violence and a return to talks on a unity government, accused the US of trying to "divide and rule." He urged Arab and Muslim nations "not to be dragged into following the interests and plans" of the U.S. administration. Oh, yeah, Condi's in town. Hopefully, somebody bought her a scorecard.
Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction, defeated Fatah in elections in January. The victory led to a cut-off of Western aid to the Palestinian Authority and deep economic crisis in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank. Elections? We got guns! We doan need no steenkin elections!!!
Responding to al-Aqsa's threat against his life, Zahar said it was not representative of the group but the work of "coup seekers who want to achieve what the Occupation (Israel) failed to do -- liquidate Islamists serving the homeland." I knew if the Israeli's gave them enough time that they'd end up eating their own...
Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri said Hamas would "not show mercy" if any of its top officials were targeted. We'll show youze guys!
A spokesman for al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Gaza declined to say whether the statement, sent to Reuters, represented the views of the entire group or certain factions. He described the threat as a "natural response" after Seyam ordered his forces to take to the streets of Gaza on Sunday to confront striking policemen demanding overdue salaries. We always threaten to kill people after...anything. It's just "our way"...
Clashes between Hamas and Fatah forces quickly erupted and spread in the most serious Palestinian violence since the Palestinian Authority was set up to oversee limited self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza under interim peace accords with Israel. Tension has been fueled by the government's inability to pay full salaries to its workers, many of them from Fatah, as a result of the Western aid embargo designed to push Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim deals. Unpaid hacks with guns leads to no good...film at eleven...
Some Fatah leaders have accused Syria, which sponsored an armed rebellion by Palestinian dissidents against then Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat in 1983 in Lebanon, of encouraging Hamas to resist any calls to bend. Yeah. Zippy says you Hamas guy's don't have to take that shit! Curse their mother's mustaches!
A top aide to Abbas said on Monday the president was seriously considering the possibility of forming an emergency government, an administration of technocrats or calling early elections to end the crisis with Hamas. Or maybe hitting those secret bank accounts and flying off to Aruba and setting up there.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, an Israeli air strike destroyed a metal foundry in the southern Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and wounding another, medical staff and residents said. Another tough night in the "metal district"...
An Israeli army spokesman said the air strike was aimed at a suspected weapons factory. Israel has frequently targeted buildings it believes are used by militants to make or store rockets. Notify Mutual of Gaza...
#12
Matresses are often used in shootouts as a layer of defense against incoming gunfire.
It is also a decent play on words regarding the time-honored and more worthy saying of "going to the mat" over something worth fighting for, as opposed to these thugs "going to the (much softer) matresses" for their usual lunchtime round of cowardly bloodshed.
In 1530 the combined troops of Charles V and Medici Pope Clement VII lay siege to Florence. The bell tower of San Miniato al Monte was part of the defences. Michelangelo Buonarroti, as he was good at most things, was put in charge of defending the city. He used the ploy of hanging mattresses on the outside of the tower to minimize damage from cannon fire.
In times of war or siege, Italian families would vacate their homes and rent apartments in safer areas. In order to protect themselves they would hire soldiers to sleep on the floor in shifts.
Ordinarily we would want to verify such stories before publishing them here as part of a phrase derivation. In this case though it isn't really important. The meaning of the phrase turns on the association in Italian folk-memory of mattresses with safety in wartime. The phrase wasn't well known outside of the USA and Italy prior to the Godfather movies. It was used there, and later in The Sopranos television series, to mean 'preparing for battle'. Whether or not the stories that originated it are true doesn't alter the fact that the screenwriters of those films used them in that context.
Here's the dialogue from Godfather:
Clemenza:
That Sonny's runnin' wild. He's thinking of going to the mattresses already.
Sonny:
No, no, no! No more! Not this time, consiglieri. No more meetings, no more discussions, no more Sollozzo tricks. You give 'em one message: I want Sollozzo. If not, it's all-out war: we go to the mattresses.
#17
ya know? If you had some internal, say, economy besides foreign aid, you might be able to give everyone the finger. As it is, the EU will suck dick and provide Euros as a symbol of thir dhimmitude, but that won't last. Might think about building....a nation? With an economy, an economic base, and such? The Jooooos were able to do a lot with the tiny portion of Gaza they cultivated, but you....destroyed that, didn't you? Go figure
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/03/2006 20:03 Comments ||
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#18
I stand corrected - I didn't regret it! ;)
Thanks guys, I can now go to my own mattress somewhat enlightened (it's late here) - cheers!
Oh, and to remain slightly on topic - it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of 'people'.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/03/2006 20:08 Comments ||
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#19
"Going to the mattresses" means secret location while in war with another Family. The term is derived from the temporary war-time hideouts in which the Family's soldiers sleep on mattresses en masse.
Gun battles erupted Monday night between Fatah gunmen and Hamas militiamen in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing one person and wounding 15, a day after a deadly explosion of internal violence paralyzed the Gaza Strip.
The fighting was the latest in a series of sporadic battles throughout the day as tensions remained high between the two groups. Fatah militants enforced a general strike in many West Bank towns in a show of strength against Hamas, while the Hamas-led government ordered all ministries closed to protest Fatah attacks on government buildings.
But the level of violence was far below the chaos and running street battles that had killed 8 people and wounded 100 across Gaza on Sunday.
In an effort to reduce friction, Hamas pulled its militiamen out of Gaza's major streets Monday and sent them back to their normal posts.
"Gaza today is better, and moving toward calm," Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas told his cabinet on Monday afternoon. But he said he feared violence in the West Bank, where Fatah militants threatened to retaliate for the Gaza fighting.
"We reiterate to our people to be responsible, not to spread the circle of disagreements and conflict, and not to transfer events to other parts of the nation," Haniya said.
Hours after he spoke, Fatah gunmen marched through Rafah after evening prayers to protest the Hamas-led government and its militia, witnesses said. When they approached a militia post, a gun battle broke out, and five people were wounded, one seriously, they said.
The fighting ended after local Hamas and Fatah officials called on their supporters to back down.
But minutes later, a new battle erupted in a Fatah stronghold across town that killed 1 bystander and left 10 other people with bullet and shrapnel wounds. Fatah officials said Hamas militiamen opened fire on Fatah supporters as they drove near a roadblock. Hamas said its militia came under fire from the car and fought back.
An earlier gun battle erupted at Gaza City's main hospital Monday morning when relatives of one of Sunday's victims arrived to retrieve his body. Fatah gunmen accompanying them opened fire on Hamas militiamen patrolling the hospital. Patients and doctors ran for cover, but no one was hurt, hospital officials said.
In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Fatah militants shot at Deputy Prime Minister Nasser al-Shaer's bodyguards as they rode in a government car, wounding two of them, said Shaer, who was not present during the attack. Hospital officials said a Fatah militant was also wounded.
In Jericho, a Fatah gunman trying to enforce the general strike shot a shopowner in the head, seriously wounding him, Fatah officials said. The wounded man was also a Fatah member, the officials said.
The latest round of violence began in Gaza on Sunday when the 3,500-man Hamas militia confronted members of the Fatah-dominated security forces who were protesting the Hamas-led government's inability to pay their wages. Fatah militants responded by torching the cabinet building in Ramallah and trashing Hamas offices in the West Bank.
Hamas, which ousted Fatah in January parliamentary elections, formed the militia in April after losing a power struggle for control of the security forces with President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah leader elected separately last year.
While Hamas pulled its militia from the main streets, Abbas ordered the striking security officers to return to work. Their protest tent - a tangible source of tension with the Hamas government - lay empty outside the Parliament building in Gaza on Monday. However, a similar tent outside the West Bank Parliament building in Ramallah was filled with protesters.
"The strike is still ongoing, and it seems that there is no end in sight," said Bassem Hadaidah, a spokesman for the strikers.
The violence further dampened hopes for a coalition government between Fatah and Hamas, a compromise aimed at ending international economic sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority after Hamas's election victory. Those sanctions left the government unable to pay its 165,000 workers.
The coalition talks stalled as Abbas unsuccessfully pushed for Hamas to accept Western demands to moderate its violent ideology.
#2
As long as they continue shooting and whacking one another, please make certain they find reasonable accomodation, ie. plenty of 7.39mm and 7.54mm ammo, Russian grenades, RPG's, etc. It's the very least we can do.
#5
One day, the populace of Palestine may figure out the benefits of coming together and planning out a future that doesn't include gun sex and Jew-hating. In the meantime, popcorn and delayed evolution.
#9
Quagmire! Anybody keeping track of how many innocent civilians have been killed and wounded since the Zionist 'occupiers' departed - and took stability with them?
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/03/2006 16:58 Comments ||
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#10
'ding-ding!' seconds out, round 2!
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/03/2006 20:42 Comments ||
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AoS note: do not, repeat, do not, put the 'blockquote' command in the title line. It screws our formatting royally. Also, if quoting multiple sources, put the first or most important one into the source box. Thank you.
Analysis: Bloody Sunday may bode war
For most Palestinian newspapers and columnists, the bloody clashes that took place between supporters of Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip on Sunday could herald a civil war that has been looming for months.
Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades threaten to kill Hamas heads
Fatah's al-Aksa Martyr's Brigades threatened Monday night to kill all of Hamas's leaders, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as well as Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Mashaal.
In a message sent to news agencies, the group said that it considered Mashaal, Interior Minister Sayid Siam and another high-ranking member of the ministry, Yosef al-Zahar, responsible for the deaths of Palestinians killed over the last two days during Hamas-Fatah clashes.
Eleven Palestinians were killed and more than 150 were wounded in fierce clashes that erupted between supporters of Hamas and Fatah over the past 48 hours in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
#10
Of course there's a downside, over and above the suffering of any civilians caught in the middle.
I must respectfully disagree. Sufficient numbers of Palestinians, namely a majority, voted for and openly support Hamas, a known terrorist organization, whereby their civilian population are now complicit in terrorism. It is only their children who are in the least innocent and, most likely, few of them above the age of ten can even be called that. The most generous thing that can be said of the Palestinians is that they are the largest group of en mass child abusers that history has ever seen.
This sort of instability will continue to pose a threat to Israel because it rather predictably will spill over into attempts at attacks there.
As if anything, short of a mass die-off of the Palestinian population, would not "spill over into attempts at attacks there".
#11
Unfortunately, lotp, at the moment the only way I see to stop them from doing this is either to lock each one up in a separate cell until they all grow up and stop trying to kill one another, or to kill them all. For the most part the ones who don't want to play either die or leave. Israel tried the middle ground from 1967-2005, and we saw how well that didn't work.
#16
wonder if they still hand out "Martyr Cards" for the dead snuffies in Intramural Paleo Sporting events? There is no downside. When a fire burns at the garbage dumb, it's wise and safer to let it burn itself out, providing it's contained, and that's the case right now. Hand wringing because it could try to jump the fence is wrong. Just kill it when it tries and let them take each other out
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/03/2006 9:01 Comments ||
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#19
1. Re innocents. Im not certain of the identities of the dead. I hope its "militants". Certainly I will never cheer the death of a child, and I would note here that a big part of the Pal electorate voted against Hamas. Not all who voted for Fatah are "innocent" but neither are all who voted for Hamas "guilty" in that some voted for Hamas just cause they were sick of Fatah.
2. Strategically - Upside is A. Militants die B. It presses toward the end of the Hamas govt. Downside - A. The bad guys may win - while the deaths of AAMB "militants" is not a cause for regret, if Fatah is fatally weakened and Hamas emerges triumphant (unlikely, but not impossible) this will prove damaging to Israel, IMO, and also to the US. B. Anything can happen in war, they are intrinscially unpredictable, and a bad things we havent thought of could occur
3. I doubt this will spillover - rockets can cross the fence, and occasionally a terr can make it through, but its hard to see how civil disorder can directly spillover. Of course it can lead to firing across the fence, but that was already happening anyway. Now IF there were still Israeli settlements in Gaza, that would have been a different danger. But there arent, thanks to a decision some have come to regret in recent weeks, but IMO may yet prove to have been very wise.
#20
How many photos have we seen with two or three Paleo snuffies shooting at IDF forces from around a bldg corner with 20-30 Paleo youts lingering three or four feet behind (or in front of) them, watching gleefully. Ineveitable Darwinian stupidity consequences.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/03/2006 11:17 Comments ||
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#21
Zenster, how did you manage to 'accidentally' post as 'Big Muzzie Kong??'
#22
How many photos have we seen with two or three Paleo snuffies shooting at IDF forces from around a bldg corner with 20-30 Paleo youts lingering three or four feet behind (or in front of) them, watching gleefully.
Enough to where the IDF should no longer feel constrained about firing into such a crowd of sympathizers. All they'd be doing is culling out a bunch of undergraduate terrorists. These runts know what they're doing and damn well know the danger involved. To quote Alan Dershowitz:
Had the Allies been required to fight World War II under the rules of engagement selectively applied to Amnesty International to Israel, our greatest generation might have lost that war. If attacking the civilian infrastructure is a war crime, then modern warfare is entirely impermissible, and terrorists have a free hand in attacking democracies and hiding from retaliation among civilians. Terrorists become de facto immune from any consequences for their atrocities.
#23
Zenster, how did you manage to 'accidentally' post as 'Big Muzzie Kong??'
No accident, just funnin'. I posted in various threads using the "King Kong" and " Big Muzzie Turkey" nyms for humorous effect and merely forgot to reset my nym when posting in other threads, like this one. Out of responsibility to the board, I identified myself where the fake nym was not appropriate.
#25
Indiscriminate crowd killing will get you fried domestically, no need for GC accords. Civilian carnage necessarily follows effective infrastructure destruction, either directly (in the attacks) or indirectly (cessation of water/power/sewage/medical care/transportation). IMHO both are necessary and essential consequences of invoking war on us, and I'd apologize for neither. I wouldn't be f*&king calling them up before destroying their houses, families, weapons caches, or Qassam factories, a la the Israelis, either.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/03/2006 15:58 Comments ||
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#26
international law on war crimes is based on intent. attacking infrastructure that serves more or less directly in war, and firing at civilians are not treated the same. I was taking issue with Zensters post, which it seemed to me implied that Dershowitz was justifying killing of "youths who hang around watching violence". Which he was not.
Of course whats permissible under Intl law is not relevant here, as we are only discussing what is an upside or downside in the current fighting among pals, not authorizing acts of war. It would be a violation of the laws of war to kill a civilian because of how they voted - but taking satisfaction in such a death, inflicted by someone else is only a thought, and not subject to the laws of war.
#27
My reference to Deshowitz's quote was in order to demonstrate how:
"... terrorists have a free hand in attacking democracies and hiding from retaliation among civilians. Terrorists become de facto immune from any consequences for their atrocities.
When a society elects (literally) to conceal, shield and support terrorists they relinquish all right to any claim of being innocent bystanders. When these kids cluster up around terrorist snipers, they know damn well that they are providing a civilian shield. Additionally, the terrorists do absolutely nothing to discourage such utter foolhardiness. The Palestinian people must eventually come to terms with how their terrorist leaders are bringing their culture to a complete and total dead end. The IDF is not to blame if, in their pursuit of terrorists, those combatants surround themselves with children to avoid military prosecution.
The use of civilians as shields must inevitably result in the deaths of civilians. There is absolutely no other way to deter such a practice. Once sufficient losses occur, civilians will forcefully resist being put into harm's way by these murderers. The Palestinians represent an almost unique and intractable situation in that their civilian population is routinely complicit in terrorist acts. Just as their Koran specifies collective punishment for dhimmi communities living under Islamic rule, so must we begin to mete out collective punishment for the wrongs of these Islamic psychotics.
There is no alternative. As Dershowitz so capably observes, to play by our own rules allows terrorists to; "... become de facto immune from any consequences for their atrocities." How many atrocities do you suggest that we endure in the painstaking attempt to prosecute only the terrorists and not any of their facilitating civilian population? The gloves must come off. Refraining to do so will only result in even more devastating atrocities being visited upon us at the hands of these relentless terrorist psychopaths. We have suffered enough. It is time for our enemies to begin suffering untold misery for their murderous religious obsession with world domination. Not a single new atrocity should be necessary to justify the ruthless and calculated killing of those who conduct, harbor, abet, promote, finance and facilitate terrorism.
#29
The only reason that there is any talk of "International Law on war crimes" is because the West inflicted punishment on Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan for same, in a definite spasm of the Left's boogie man - "victor's justice". If it had not been for the war crime tribunals after WWII, no one would even bother to talk about violations of war crimes standards. And no, the deliberate destruction of infrastructure to impede the war-fighting ability of an opponent is not prohibited.
#31
Ima agreed with Zenster on this one, although I think teh Koran plays a minimal part in the Gaza death cult. It's the Jooooo hate more than any Islamic fervor that motivates, and always will be. They might spout the usual Friday sermon - 'rev up the rubes' shit - but it's power. thuggery, Joooo hate and nihilism that motivates this cesspool, and will lead to their ultimate cessation as a people
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/03/2006 21:46 Comments ||
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#32
UN ambulance drivers must be pulling thier hair out.
It'll drive you to do that, when both sides are your patrons.
#33
Frank, in light of how the Koran supposedly (nudge nudge, wink wink) honors "people of the book", like "fellow" Jews and Christians, you are most definitely right about how Jew hatred drives this insane death-wish suicide cult known as the Palestinians.
As trailing wife so capably observed, only by locking every one of them up in individual jail cells or just killing them all can we bring about any halt to the endless murder these cretins are so fixated upon.
#34
dershowitz (whom Ive met) was discussing attacks on infrastructure, not firing into crowds, just to clarify.
So, liberalhawk, are you going to come back in here with some more stern finger-wagging solutions to this world's intractable terrorist problems?
However nasty my proposed solutions might be, they are that, "solutions". Your advice that we all toe the line of international law only invites more Rwandas, Darfurs and Palestines. I only ask that you balance your repeated utopian longings with some degree of honest real-world vision.
What rational objections can you pose to my suggestions regarding how to deal with willing civilian shields, liberalhawk? I'd honestly like to know.
Hamas militiamen withdrew from Gaza's streets Monday to prevent a new round of violence after the worst day of internal Palestinian fighting under the Hamas government. But sporadic gunbattles persisted in Palestinian areas between members of Hamas and the rival Fatah party.
In protest against attacks by militant supporters of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, Hamas also closed all of its government ministries in the Palestinian territories. In the northern West Bank town of Nablus, Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer said Fatah militants shot at his bodyguards as they rode in a government car, injuring two of them. Shaer was not present during the attack. Hospital officials said a Fatah militant was also injured in the fighting.
At Gaza City's main hospital, a 20-minute gunbattle erupted when the family of one of those killed Sunday arrived to retrieve his body. The Fatah gunmen accompanying the family opened fire on the Hamas militiamen patrolling the hospital, sending patients and doctors running for cover. No one was injured, hospital officials said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2006 00:00 ||
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels on Tuesday agreed to unconditional talks with the government, but warned they will pull out of a 2002 cease-fire if the government persists with its military campaign, a spokesman said. "We have said that we are ready for talks. We have not placed any conditions and neither has the government," rebel spokesman, Daya Master, told The Associated Press.
Nothing sez you're getting your asses kicked like agreeing to unconditional talks
He was speaking after Norway's peace envoy, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, met with the head of the rebels' political wing, Suppiah Thamilselvan, to press for an end to months of recent bloodshed and a return to talks, suspended since February. "But Mr. Thamilselvan said one thing, that we will totally pull out of the cease-fire if the government continues to attack us," Master said.
The Norway-brokered cease-fire temporarily ended Sri Lanka's 19-year civil war between the government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who want to carve out a separate homeland for the country's ethnic Tamils. About 65,000 people were killed in the conflict before the truce. Renewed fighting since late July, however, has left at least 1,000 combatants and civilians dead.
Think of how bad it could be without a ceasefire in place
No date for the talks was announced, although the government's national security spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, earlier said the government has suggested Oct. 30 or Nov. 10 as possible dates.
The government was to hold a press conference later Tuesday to discuss the talks, officials said. The government had previously said it wants a personal commitment from the rebels' reclusive leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, to end all violence before any talks. Tuesday's meeting was part of Hanssen-Bauer's stepped up diplomatic efforts to restart peace talks. Following the peace talks in Geneva in February, a second round slated for April was canceled after each side blamed the other for rising violence.
On Monday, Hanssen-Bauer held separate meetings with top government negotiator Nimal Siripala de Silva, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Palitha Kohona, chief of the government's peace secretariat, officials said.
Meanwhile, a rebel Web site said air force fighter jets bombed rebel-held areas 20 kilometers (32 miles) away from where the talks were taking place. "This morning, they (rebels) were firing artillery toward our forces in the northern peninsula and the air force attacked three identified rebel artillery positions to neutralize their attack," military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Tamil Tigers attacked a police camp in Murunkan in northern Vavuniya district, prompting police to retaliate, Samarasinghe said , adding that the insurgents were armed with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.
Police did not suffer any casualties, but they later recovered the body of one rebel, he said.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/03/2006 09:03 ||
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#1
You see, the mighty Sri Lankan Navy has forced the rebels to the negotiating table.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A suicide blast in the Afghan capital wounded three NATO soldiers and three civilians on Monday, while officials said 14 people had died in other attacks blamed on the extremist Taliban movement. 
Up to 40 people were killed in clashes between rebel groups in south Darfur, forcing foreign aid workers to abandon the Greida displaced persons' camp, the Guardian newspaper reported on its Web site on Monday. 
At least 20 people have been killed and more than 40 others were wounded in the second day armed clashes happened in central Somalia between tribal Somali militiamen, as medical officials confirmed on Sunday. It was the bloodiest battle in Somalia central Galgadud region since the Islamic Courts seized control of the capital early June. The fighting took place in an area between Daader and Qorof villages near Adado town in Galadud region and close to the border with Ethiopia between Marehan sub-clan of Darod tribe and Saleban sub-clan of Hawiye tribe. 
CHUADANGA, Oct 2: Regional commander of an outlawed party was killed in a shootout between his cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion members at Purbapara Adibari in Boalmari upazila early Monday, reports UNB. 
DHAKA: Bangladesh's Supreme Court has ordered a stay of execution for four Islamist militants sentenced to death for bomb attacks that killed at least 30 people last year, a court official said on Sunday. The militants included Shayek Abdur Rahman and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai, heads of two outlawed Islamist groups seeking the introduction of sharia-based Islamic law in Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy. 
(AP) North Korea said Tuesday that it will conduct a nuclear test to bolster its self-defense capability amid what it calls increasing U.S. hostility toward the communist regime.
Italian police on Monday issued six arrest warrants - three of which were served - and announced they had dismantled a terrorist cell suspected of having financed two terror attacks near Algiers last year in which 20 people died. The group, made up mainly of Algerians, was allegedly close to the 
Law enforcement agencies have arrested 246 pro-Taliban Afghans in the last two months, a senior interior ministry official told Daily Times on Monday. He said the arrests were made during the campaign launched against Taliban operatives and Afghans supporting the Taliban. So far Pakistan has handed over 57 pro-Taliban Afghans to the government of Afghanistan, he added.
Investigations into last year's Delhi blasts have shown that 37 Pakistani nationals were financing terror networks across India. Thirty-seven people -- all residents of Pakistan and active members of terror outfit 
CAIRO, Egypt - A top al-Qaida official warned Abu Musab al-Zarqawi six months before he was killed by a U.S. airstrike that he would be removed as the terror groups head in Iraq if he did not consult with the groups leadership on major issues.
(AKI) - Some 790 victims - among them US soldiers, Iraqi policemen and members of the Shiite militias - have been killed by al-Qaeda in Iraq and its allies since June, the groups boast in a bloody balance sheet posted to the Internet on Monday. The 
Gun battles erupted Monday night between Fatah gunmen and Hamas militiamen in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing one person and wounding 15, a day after a deadly explosion of internal violence paralyzed the Gaza Strip.
Hamas militiamen withdrew from Gaza's streets Monday to prevent a new round of violence after the worst day of internal Palestinian fighting under the Hamas government. But sporadic gunbattles persisted in Palestinian areas between members of Hamas and the rival Fatah party. 
