Insurgents torched a newly built school for refugee children in eastern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, in the first such attack in 2007 blamed on Taleban militants. There was a spate of similar attacks last year on schools and teachers that were mostly blamed on Taleban rebels conducting an insurgency to overthrow the government and expel foreign troops trying to bring stability.
The school set alight on Monday night in the eastern province of Nangarhar near the border with Pakistan was made up of tents from the UN childrens fund, Unicef, provincial spokesman Hazrat Hussain said. Five tents of a new Unicef-built school were burned down last night in Behsud district, he said.
Hussain blamed the attack on the enemies of Afghanistan, a term often used by Afghan officials to refer to the Taleban movement ousted from government in late 2001.
Gul Pacha Khalizay, the deputy education director of the province, said about 200 boys and girls from a nearby refugee camp used the primary school. Thousands of Afghans who fled into Pakistan during the countrys decades of war have filtered back since the fall of the hardline Taleban, which denied girls an education and allowed the school system to fall into ruin.
The British-based charity Oxfam said in November there had been a five-fold increase in enrolments since the Taleban fell but more than half of children about seven million were still not in school.
Education minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said in August that suspected Taleban had killed at least 41 teachers and students in Afghanistan in the previous 12 months and security concerns forced 208 schools to close.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Insurgents torch school in eastern Afghanistan
and thus begins the Brutal A-Stan Winter Campaign brought to you by the Lions of Islam.
#3
even trade: they burn an Afghan school, we bomb a Paki Madrassah to rubble, and bounce the rubble, then napalm the crumbs
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/03/2007 9:48 Comments ||
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#4
Yeah, Frank. Napalm. I had forgotten about that stuff - if they're so cold and short of fuel they feel the need to burn schools, we could give them some napalm to warm up with instead. Air mail delivery.
#5
"insurgents"? Obviously it must've been a heavily fortified military target otherwise they were attacking civilians and there's a different word for people who do that.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Navy vessels are deployed off the coast of Somalia to make sure al-Qaida or allied jihadists don't escape the country by sea now that the once-dominant Islamist forces there are in retreat, the State Department said Wednesday. Of particular concern is the fate of three al-Qaida militants who were believed by U.S. officials to be under the protection of the Islamic Courts Union in Mogadishu until Ethiopian forces drove the Courts from power in recent days.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the missions off the coast are being carried out by a U.S. task force based in the Horn of Africa.
The al-Qaida militants are believed to have had a role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and in the 2002 bombing of a hotel in Kenya. Kenya sent extra troops to its border with Somalia on Wednesday to keep Islamic militants from entering the country.
McCormack said the administration is planning to provide food to Somalia, adding that U.S. officials will take part in a donors conference soon to determine further needs and how they can be met. Also planned is a meeting of U.S., European and African countries, along with international institutions on Friday in Kenya for a discussion of humanitarian and security issues. That might explain why this announcement came from DoS rather then DoD.
McCormack said the United States continues to support the creation of an all-Africa force to help out the transitional government as it seeks to consolidate its authority in Mogadishu. Until the Islamic Courts were forced out, the government had been confined to the western town of Baidoa, unable to assert its authority nationwide despite U.N. and United States backing.
The U.S. efforts on the humanitarian and peacekeeping fronts are part of an overall international initiative "to move Somalia out of the category of a failed state," McCormack said. The spokesman stopped short of an outright endorsement of the Ethiopian attack but said it was apparent that the Islamic Courts had fallen under the control "of those that had links to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups."
These groups, he said, "quite clearly were interested in imposing draconian types of interpretations" of Islamic law on Somalia in contravention of the polices of the transitional government. Before Ethiopian troops launched their offensive last week, "we certainly would have hoped that there could have been a negotiated, political dialogue," McCormack said.
"But it became apparent over time, and certainly very apparent in the recent weeks, that that wasn't going to happen and that the Islamic Courts were intent upon trying to seize control over all of Somalia through use of arms," he said.
#2
McCormack said the administration is planning to provide food to Somalia...
Why?? The US needs to continue supporting Ethiopia militarily and or logistically as a proxy in this matter! G** D*** Bush Administration needs to send that food to Denver, New Orleans and Waveland...and yes I'm still seething over the "Black Hawk Down" incident; and thank God Les Aspen is still dead!!!
#3
WTF as apposed to the kinder more modern version of stone to death rape victims?
No, the more moderate version that ensures the retirement funds of State officials.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/03/2007 18:48 Comments ||
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#4
Dumb. Dumb. The US should be finding a way to sink aid shipments. If allah won't provide, she don't want them to eat.
Posted by: ed ||
01/03/2007 19:54 Comments ||
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#5
Why?? The US needs to continue supporting Ethiopia militarily and or logistically as a proxy in this matter! G** D*** Bush Administration needs to send that food to Denver, New Orleans and Waveland...
I see we're still getting the LGF-rejects.
Why food shipments? To prop up the transitional government. Ethiopia will continue to get support; they won't be able to run Somalia. If they get bogged down there, then good luck keeping them as a proxy. Or haven't you thought that far?
and yes I'm still seething over the "Black Hawk Down" incident; and thank God Les Aspen is still dead!
Part of leadership is fighting the current situation, planning the future, and taking the past into consideration. Not fighting the past, forgetting the future and taking the present into consideration. G-d save me from armchair generals.
Dumb. Dumb. The US should be finding a way to sink aid shipments. If allah won't provide, she don't want them to eat.
The objective is to kill Islamists and take away their bases of support. Kinda hard to do the latter by sinking aid-ships, dipschidt.
#6
Pappy, you confuse islamists as some separate create from muslims. they are in fact one and the same. It is islam that teaches them
Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
The west is voluntarily losing this conflict and are being colonized the the Modhammedan. You would increase their numbers and on your and my dime.
Posted by: ed ||
01/03/2007 22:05 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) An Islamist fighter hiding the jungle outside of Jilib town in Middle Juba region in southern Somalia killed two Ethiopian soldiers and wounded two others, according to reports from the area. The murderer was among 12 fighters left behind in Lugoshow village near Jilib after the Islamists were defeated in the clashes with the Ethiopian backed interim government troops two days before.
The killer, who later was shot dead, sneaked into a house in Jilib where he targeted the Ethiopians and opened fire to a number of Ethiopian soldiers at the towns checkpoint, killing two on the spot and injuring two others. Witnesses told SomaliNet that the man escaped after the initial attack early this morning. He was found and shot dead later in the day.
Before killing the Islamist martyr, the Ethiopians searched through the town and later found where he was hiding and killed him after strong resistance. The Islamist man stayed apart from 11 other fighters who were left behind the frontline near Jilib who decided to go on foot to Mogadishu through adventuring the jungle, local resident said. The Islamist said he wanted to claim the lives of several Ethiopian soldiers before getting martyrdom.
The Ethiopian forces are now speeding up the establishment of the security in Jilib to prevent such incident in the future.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
At least he's attacking enemy solidiers instead of blowing up his people's bazaar or burning down a girls' school after murdering the teachers.
Thousands of refugees fleeing recent fighting between the Ethiopia-backed Somali government and the now-vanquished Islamists were stranded on Tuesday at the border with Kenya after authorities refused them entry, said officials. UN office for coordination for humanitarian affairs (Unocha) said: "About 4 000 Somalis are said to be in Dhobley along the Kenya-Somalia border, waiting, not yet able to cross."
Kenyan police said they would not allow the refugees into the country for security reasons. "We will never allow them to cross over," said a top police commander in northeastern Kenya, adding: "If we allow them they will bring in security problems."
Now there's a perceptive comment.
Kenya has reinforced its border security to prevent Islamists from crossing into the country, which already hosts about 160 000 refugees who fled fighting more than 15 years of unrest in Somalia. I think we can safely assume this particular 4000 or so represents the remnants of the Powerful Islamic Courts.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I recomend the ol' indian blanket trick. That's where you give sell them blankets infected with smallpox.
#2
While not PC, it prevents the clean shaven bad guys from mixing in with the real refugees. and the Kenyans could always catapult any UN supplies over the border to them.....
(AKI) - Arab and Eritrean fighters are among combatants captured when Somali transitional government forces backed by Ethiopian troops entered the southern port of Kismayo on Monday and drove out Islamist forces from their last stronghold in the country, prime minister, Ali Mohammed Ghedi told a press conference on Tuesday.
Ghedi however ruled out the possibility of further battles in southern Somalia between government forces and fighters from the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), according to Somalia's Radio Shabelle. He has announced the re-opening of Kismayo port and the local airport and has given Islamist fighters until Thursday to hand in their weapons. "They will enjoy an amnesty for Islamist militants and will be treated as equals," Ghedi stated.
Despite having been driven out of Kismayo with support form Ethiopian troops, fighter jets, Islamist leaders have vowed to continue their fight, leading to concerns they may launch a guerrilla campaign and draw in more foreign fighters. The United States government, which has accused the UIC of harbouring al-Qaeda terrorists, has signalled it is encouraging the transitional government to enter into dialogue with "all Somali parities of goodwill," including moderates with the movement. It is also pushing for the deployment of an African-led peacekeeping force.
The last international peacekeeping mission to Somalia ended in humiliation with the last troops being withdrawn after bloody fighting with Somali clan-based militias.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Word to Ethiopia: If you falter now you will regret it later.
A man who took part in a protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad clearly called for the murder of American and Danish citizens, a prosecutor told a jury on Tuesday. Umran Javed, 27, attempted to rally the crowd at the February 3 demonstration to launch attacks against the United States and Denmark, said prosecutor David Perry. "The words used were straightforward and plain," Perry said. "If you shout out 'Bomb, bomb Denmark,' 'Bomb, bomb USA,' there is no doubt about what you intend your audience to understand."
Javed has pleaded not guilty to charges of soliciting murder and stirring up racial hatred. The protests followed the publication, in Danish and other European newspapers, of cartoons, some of which depicted the prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban, clutching a dagger and berating a group of suicide bombers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
They used to hang people for sedition. Also, stick their heads on pikes across Tower Bridge. Just a suggestion.
#2
"Umran Javed, 27, attempted to rally the crowd at the February 3 demonstration to launch attacks against the United States and Denmark"
Umran travelled from Birmingham to London to take part, but intended to say nothing "until a megaphone was thrust into his hands", according to the Gulf Daily News. "I regret saying these things, they were just soundbites, slogans ..."
Hundreds of soldiers and federal police descended on the border city of Tijuana on Wednesday to probe corruption by local police and open a new front in President Felipe Calderon's war on drug violence.
As two helicopters circled overhead, dozens of troops with assault rifles and riot shields converged on a police headquarters to inspect weapons, a first step in probing alleged drug gang links and corruption inside the local force.
Calderon ordered a 3,300-strong special force to Tijuana and the first 500 arrived on Wednesday. The offensive came three weeks after Calderon sent 7,000 troops to his crime-ridden home state of Michoacan to kick off a new war on drug-related violence that killed some 2,000 people in 2006.
"We are determined to regain security, not just in Michoacan or Baja California, but in every part of Mexico that is threatened by organized crime," Calderon said on Wednesday, visiting troops in Michoacan, in western Mexico.
Calderon took office on December 1.
Tijuana, just south of San Diego and one of the busiest border crossings into the United States, sees a murder almost every day and two kidnappings a week, most blamed on brutal rivalries between drug cartels.
The city's drug trade is dominated by the Arellano Felix cartel, which battles rival gangs from the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said there was evidence criminal gangs had infiltrated the local police.
"This is about getting Tijuana out of the hands of criminal organizations," he told Reuters.
Huge quantities of South American cocaine pass through Mexico on its way to the United States, and Mexico also produces marijuana, methamphetamines and heroin.
Mexico's municipal police are so poorly paid and badly equipped that even officers not in the pay of crime gangs are widely considered inept.
Calderon's predecessor Vicente Fox declared war on drug gangs in early 2005, but the crackdown only intensified turf wars between cartels. Gang-related murders and drive-by shootings spread down Mexico's Pacific coast.
In one grisly incident last year, five severed heads were tossed onto the dance floor of a Michoacan nightclub.
Calderon said the war on drug gangs -- whom local media blame for half of all federal crimes -- had to be accompanied by improvements to the justice system, which is also criticized as ineffective and corrupt.
"We need laws that help us chase and imprison criminals, not ones that save them from the punishment they deserve," he said.
#4
Now if we could get our own jackass president to take an interest in border issues, the real Americans may finally be served by our inept Federales.
#5
Purist Mafiosi won't care whom or what -ism is in charge as long as they accept offers they can't refuse. That being said, World Mafias gener make more $$$ from stable, prosperous societies than the opposite - they need vestiges of freedoms to make their honest = dishonest $$$, and won't get that from Totalitarian or Despotic regimes.
#6
Tijuana has been plagued by fighting between rival drug gangs. Last year, there were more than 300 killings in the city. In one of the most gruesome crimes, assailants in June abducted three policemen and a civilian in the nearby town of Rosarito, killing them and dumping their severed heads on a Tijuana beach.
(Interfax) - Two ex-militants have turned themselves in to the authoritieis in Chechnya over the past 24 hours. One of them, a resident of the village of Tolstoi-Yurt in the Groznensky district, surrendered a Kalashnikov rifle. The other claimed that he had provided food for illegal armed groups.
In other developments, a large cache with explosives has been discovered in Grozny's Zavodskoi district, Chechnya's Interior Ministry told Interfax. "The cache was found near a half-ruined bridge across the Sunzha in a search operation, conducted by the interior ministry, jointly with the temporary federal interior ministry grouping and Chechnya's Police Regiment No.2," the ministry said. A gas container filled with powder, with a detonator attached, and two metal pipes filled with explosives were inside the cache. The explosive devices were to be used in subversive operations, according to the ministry.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
They'll slowly trickle in now. With Shamil and Abu Havs both dead, there are more surrendering than there are booming people. Unless there's a major infusion of Arab money and men the Russers have won the Chechen fight.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 8:29 Comments ||
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#3
Unless there's a major infusion of Arab money and men the Russers have won the Chechen fight.
MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Police have arrested five men who could have aided the escape of two fugitives of the 2004 Madrid train bombings, Spain's interior minister said Wednesday.
Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said each of the five, who are also suspected of ties with international terrorism, was detained in a different Spanish city - Barcelona, Tarragona, Gerona, Cadiz and A Coruna. The five, identified as Zohaib Khadiri, Djilali Boussiri, Nasreddine Ben Laid Amri, Samir Tahtah and Kamal Ahbar, may have collaborated in the escape of two fugitives of the Madrid bombings, Moroccans Mohamed Belhadj and Mohamed Afalah, Rubalcaba said.
"This operation has led to arrest of five men suspected of links with the March 11 bombings" Rubalcaba said. He added that the operation had been ordered by National Court Judge Juan del Olmo, who is probing the blasts aboard four commuter trains that killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500. The bombings were blamed on a group of mostly North African Muslim extremists.
Belhadj, along with Said Berraj and Daoud Ouhane, is sought by authorities, although all are believed to have fled Spain long ago. Afalah is believed to have blown himself up in Iraq. One never tires of hearing reports such as that.
The nationalities of the detained and other details of the arrests were not immediately available. At least one of the detained, Tahtah, was already in prison for another terrorism case. Tahtah was ordered jailed last year on charges of belonging to a Syrian-based network that recruited suicide bombers to attack U.S. troops in Iraq.
Police said they found forged documentation and cash in the raids.
Three militants were killed and a landmine was detected in a border village in Jammu and Kashmir since Monday night, a police spokesman said on Tuesday. A militant of al-Badr outfit was killed in a gunbattle in Manjakote area of Poonch district in Jammu. Two more militants of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit were shot dead by security forces in Sopore township of Baramulla district, he said.
Acting on specific information, Army troops recovered a live landmine in an agricultural field near the border in Khoda village of Dayalachak belt of Kathua district, official sources said. The mine was later defused, the sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Well, there is already a surge in Baghdad. As areas are turned over to the Iraqis, the MNF forces are being redeployed. In the above case, a Stryker brigade from Mosul to Baghdad.
But all the troops in the world won't do you any good if you can't do anything with them. We could probably be more effective with the troops we already have there if we could go after al-Sadr and the Iranians.
#5
Notsomuch Troopin' but need more Destabilizin' + Revolutionizin' inside Iran. *HISTORY CHANNEL > DOGFIGHTS > US warplanes are designed to SMASH THRU ANYTHING/ARE BEST IN HEAD-ON = FULL-ON ATTACKS. 108 Japanese planes left their carriers to bomb Midway Island in June, 1942 but only roughly 1/2 got thru to bomb Midway proper after engaging obsolete or inferior US fighters.
* SECURE BORDERS + DESTABILIZE IRAN
* SECURE BORDERS + STABILIZE IRAG ONLY
* SECURE BORDERS + STABILIZE IRAQ + DESTABILIZE IRAN.
SEEMINGLY FAILING TO SECURE BOTH IRAQI BORDERS + FAILURE TO DETABILIZE IRAN > MSM > HOW GOP LOST THE CONGRESS IN 2006. Amer Voters = Amer Parents > wanna see VICTORY agz Radical Iran, NORTH KOREA, Radical Islam + WOT - they don't wanna see their sons + daughters fighting in the ME forever for nothing in return. VICTORY > US-LED MILITARY TAKEOVER, OR US-LED DEMOCRATIC LOCAL "REGIME CHANGE" [both includ NATION BUILD/RECONTRUX] ASAP.
This is what US SPECFOR PYWAR/PYOPS is for.
Iran is supporting both Sunni and Shiite terrorists in the Iraqi civil war, according to secret Iranian documents captured by Americans in Iraq.
The news that American forces had captured Iranians in Iraq was widely reported last month, but less well known is that the Iranians were carrying documents that offered Americans insight into Iranian activities in Iraq.
An American intelligence official said the new material, which has been authenticated within the intelligence community, confirms "that Iran is working closely with both the Shiite militias and Sunni Jihadist groups." The source was careful to stress that the Iranian plans do not extend to cooperation with Baathist groups fighting the government in Baghdad, and said the documents rather show how the Quds Force the arm of Iran's revolutionary guard that supports Shiite Hezbollah, Sunni Hamas, and Shiite death squads is working with individuals affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunna.
Continued on Page 49
#1
The shiites are so stoopid and clanish, they probably wont even care. All they seem to want to do is kill each other and steal from their own country.
#4
...For people who are so obsessed with history, these clods (the Sunni) don't seem to remember what happened when a King of Spain invited the Moors in to help him win a civil war. The Moors stayed for a few centuries, IIRC.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/03/2007 10:23 Comments ||
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#5
Why does the majority deny the following? Roman imperialists required decades to establish Pax Romana; America could do create Pax Americana at the blink of an eye. Governments could be toppled; entire armies can be destroyed; captive peoples could be forced to kill America's enemies, without a US citizen being placed in jeopardy; hostile immigrants with alien values, could be deported at whim; proliferation concerns would end with the push of a button; those states who killed Americans or destroyed US property, could be forced to pay tribute without any input into payment rates; all energy supply concerns could be eliminated; any country could be occupied in a way that locals would fear operating against US troops, etc ad nausem.
If the US does not project power, then the enemy will. Anyone who says US options are limited, is either a brainwashed vomit spewer or a fanatic appeaser.
Actually Roman history is divided into the Republic and Imperial history. Pax Romana was an early Imperial phenomenon, however in the big picture you are correct.
Appeasers on Iraq would promote toppling Hussein through UN diplomacy. Hopefully the appeasers have not won the day on Iran. We owe something to future generations: an Ayatollah ICBM threat to the US Homeland will only be the result of a refusal to project existing power.
#11
IMO "Pax Americana" became official the day NIXON declared America, AND ONLY AMERICA, the ONLY DE FACTO, TRUE SUPERPOWER IN THE WORLD, by any measure or -ism. Iff this article is correct or mostly correct, then Radical Iran is responsible for sectarian attacks on fellow Shias, and regardless of the pro-Iran = anti-Iran ideo of the victims. For Moud's sake, methinks there had better be an appearance of the Imam/Mahdi NLT end of this Spring equinox.
Snip. No link and duplicate. Please, folks, check for duplicates and always, always, always provide a source URL in the source box (not embedded in the text). AoS.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/03/2007 07:01 ||
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WASHINGTON, Dec. 27, 2006 Several Iranian nationals were detained in recent coalition raids conducted in Iraqs capital city, a senior U.S. military officer said in Baghdad today.
Two Iranians were among eight other suspects detained during a coalition raid at a Baghdad site Dec. 21, Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, told reporters.
The early-morning operation was based on intelligence information, Caldwell said, noting documents, maps, photographs, and videos were also confiscated. Debriefings of these detainees and investigation of the seized materials have yielded intelligence that link perhaps some of them to some illegal activities that have occurred, Caldwell said.
The investigation is still ongoing, he said.
The 10 detainees are still in the custody of Multinational Force Iraq, Caldwell said, noting U.S. officials remain in contact with the Iraqi government regarding the matter.
In another operation, three Iranian nationals and one Iraqi were detained during a vehicle search by coalition forces that took place in the early evening in Baghdad Dec. 20, Caldwell said. The four varmints detainees have since been transferred to the custody of the Iraqi government, Caldwell said.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/03/2007 06:45 ||
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#1
The four detainees have since been transferred to the custody of the Iraqi government, Caldwell said.
And we all know how fond the Iraqis are of the Iranians. I doubt Iraqi interrogators will be as...fastidious as their American counterparts.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
01/03/2007 6:59 Comments ||
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#2
Like it or not the Iranians will move in once the Americans leave Iraq!!!!
Posted by: ed ||
01/03/2007 7:17 Comments ||
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#4
Well, it's a gamble with Shiites. The cop who arrests them *might* be pro-Iranian, *or*, he might be intensely nationalistic, who had lots of family killed by Iranians in the war. Coin flip.
apologies for length - but this article is the best treatment of the key issue of Iraq strategy I've yet seen - it's depressing as hell, yet not too surprising)
No problems on the length and great in-line commentary. In the future please make your comments in hilite text; makes it easier for us to read. Thanks! AoS.
President Bush began 2006 assuring the country that he had a strategy for victory in Iraq. He ended the year closeted with his war cabinet on his ranch trying to devise a new strategy, because the existing one had collapsed.
The original plan, championed by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top commander in Baghdad, and backed by Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, called for turning over responsibility for security to the Iraqis, shrinking the number of American bases and beginning the gradual withdrawal of American troops. Great plan! For, say, 2008 or 2009. It was not exactly a secret back in March 2005, the first time I heard - to my amazement - Casey dangle the troop reduction thing in public, that Iraq was nowhere close to being ready for a rapid transition to minding their own security business. Right here is the central problem that many lowly but close observers were distraught about from the get-go
But the plan collided with Iraqs ferocious unraveling, which took most of Mr. Bushs war council by surprise.
In interviews in Washington and Baghdad, senior officials said the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department had also failed to take seriously warnings, including some from its own ambassador in Baghdad, that sectarian violence could rip the country apart and turn Mr. Bushs promise to clear, hold and build Iraqi neighborhoods and towns into an empty slogan.
#1
The plan(s) had a small miscalculation.
1. The assumption that Iraq is a nation.
2. The assumption that Iraquis want freedom as Americans understand the term.
#3
Apologies on the formatting - preview wasn't working at the time. It's not an op-ed, it's an article. And I think it probably gets the story pretty much right - it's the actual strategy and performance of the real players that is so upsetting, not the reporting, in this case.
#4
This is truly a bigger f**ked up mess than even VietNam. Mostly for the same reasons. No real resaon to be there and no strategy, just rocking back and forth from one mess to another. It seems from here that Americans are not even allowed to fight and protect themselves. They serve only as targets. This, in my opinion, is criminal. At least Johnson had enough soul to realize what a gawd awful mess he created. He didn't stop it. Be he stopped. Now, from the British press, we hear that the new plan is to install up to 40,000 more troops. For what? To get picked off? Or, to turn them loose as fighters and exterminate thousands of these dogs, as should have happened three years ago. I feel for every American there. This is unconscionable behavior from the very top. There has never been a stated purpose that even a five year old would believe as to why we went there. If American lives are being sacrificed we must demand an explanation. One that has a shred of plausability. We lost 58,000 young Americans 40 years ago, and found that it was for naught. Gained nothing. Shouldn't have been there. Is this the same ? Just had a big discussion in my VFW last night. No one, out of about 20, favors more troops into this mess now.
#5
There has never been a stated purpose that even a five year old would believe as to why we went there.
Because otherwise there would be more attacks like 9/11 over here. I understand you being furious at this report, SpecOp35, but really! Chemical weapon precursers have been found, ready to load into warheads, there was an article yesterday that Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program was shipped to Syria even as the 2003 invasion was beginning, remember the pictures of truck caravans heading over the Lebanese border, which participants later confessed contained Iraq's gold reserves and other, mmmm, things. Iraq is merely one of the first battles of the War on Jihadi Islam, or whatever we're calling it these days, and our foothold in the Middle East. Clearly the execution is less than ideal, but do you really argue we should not fight this?
#7
SpecOp35 - many forget we had a treaty obligation to South Vietnam, and one that was shared with Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. Other allies provided tropps at the time. One argument at the time (1968?) was that the government in power wasn't worth fighting for, suggesting treaties really are not worth the paper they're printed on.
We'll promise to protect you, [insert country] but then you gotta do what we want - sort of like the calls here and now to get rid of Maliki. The Iraqis elected him; we are not permitted to vote him in or out, or even get the ACLU to sue to have him impeached.
Had we never gone into Vietman and not even signed the treaty, the world would be a different place, that's for sure. Maybe not better, but certainly different. Somebody ought to write a book!
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/03/2007 13:34 Comments ||
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#8
The big problem we had is we never quarantined the borders of Iraq. It wasn't just the fighters,weapons and money comming in. It was the Sunni perception that the bad guys had never ending resources.
Why work with the government and be killed when the radicals had streams of foreign fighters pouring in? By the time the Sunni figured out they'd made a mistake, they were being driven out of Iraq.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/03/2007 13:59 Comments ||
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#9
there was an article yesterday that Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program was shipped to Syria even as the 2003 invasion was beginning
TW, was that posted on RB? I can't find it. If not posted, it should be.
#10
It may not have been yesterday, KBK -- I've never been good with the space-time continuum (that's why I married an engineer!). But it was recently, and I'm pretty sure it was here -- Rantburg is my primary news source. Sorry.
But what really broke the camels back was a recent report from the well-informed Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al Seyassah. It quoted European intelligence sources as saying that Syria has an advanced nuclear program in a secret site located in the province of Al Hassaka, close to the Turkish and Iraqi borders. British sources quoted by the paper believe that it is President Assads brother, Colonel Maher Assad and his cousin Rami Makhlouf, who supervise the program.
This nuclear weapons program is based on material that Saddam Husseins two sons shipped to Syria before and during the U.S. war against Iraq. According to the Kuwaiti newspaper, this explains why international investigative teams found no proof of Husseins nuclear program.
#13
I watched the Joint Chief's testimony recently, I recollect Gen. Peter Pace. My thought at the time was, "These guys look whipped. Time for a change of management."
#14
We could not clear and hold, Stephen J. Hadley
We hear this time and time again. One has to wonder about how Bush Sr.(23) and Clinton's (40+) base closing, troop reductions affected the decision to keep the number of troops so low.
#15
This is just part of a larger war and it is from that perspective, not Iraq isolated in the view, that determines the strategy.
Could anyone show the single consistent overall strategy from Washington, the War Department, or any other federal body that formulated the objectives of the 19th Century consolidation of the West? What evolved were spurts and spasms to a very general concept of 'civilizing' the West that employed both military and civilian actions. However, there was no 'Plan'. It was just done. It appears that in the end, it worked.
#16
In the 1800's the US did have a plan. It was called Manifest Destiny, i.e. colonization. The rest flowed from that. Colonization would also work today.
Posted by: ed ||
01/03/2007 20:02 Comments ||
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#17
Manifest Destiny was not uniformly applauded as a policy. There was a constant back and forth among the regions about how to deal with the west and the indians. It is remarkable how consistent the positions of the regions have been. But not so amazing if one has read Albion's Seed.
#18
Because otherwise there would be more attacks like 9/11 over here. I understand you being furious at this report, SpecOp35, but really!
Thanks Trailing wife...
I think this may be the entire point of the Iraq, Afghanistan invasions (sorry campaigns).
We took the war back to them. Instead of fighting on US or UK soil post 911, the insurgents, Al Qaeda, The Iranians and all of those vigorously fighting an ideological war against Infidels (thats us) do so on their own soil, perfect!
The money is well spent, the resolve to remain is appropriate, as the cost of fighting at home would be more costly in every aspect.
Whether the US and "coalition of the willing" are considered losers or victors is beside the point - the destruction is in their back yard where it belongs, not ours.
#19
Iff the general strategy to preclude the USA from invading many Rogue or Terror-supporting Nations-States, but instead destroy = contain Radical Islam by letting them attack superior US or US-Allied Milfors on battlegrounds of the USA-Allies own choosing, and while promoting-empowering democratic efforts inside the Rogues, THEN IT IS WORKING VV RADICAL ISLAM BEING DESTROYED INSIDE IRAG-AFGHANISTAN, AND ELSEWHERE. SUCH A PLAN REQUIRES THAT THE BORDER AREAS WILFULLY BE LEFT UNSECURED SO THAT SIZABLE ISLAMIST UNITS FROM AROUND THE WORLD BE ABLE TO COME IN AND BE DESTROYED BY WHAT AMER DOES BEST > SMASH-THRU-ANYTHING/ANYONE MASSIVE FIREPOWER AND HI-TECH.
That being said, this kind of plan must ALWAYS by definition be subject to US Two-Party = National Politix, etc. espec PC. "DA PLAN" is NOT working within the specific scope that the US Voter in 2006 Elex did not see any viable "regime change" take place inside RADICAL IRAN, THE WEST/WORLD-ACKNOWLEDGED PRINCIPAL SPONSOR OF RADICAL ISLAMIST TERRORISM. IFF NOT FOR THE LATTER OF IRAN-SPECIFIC REGIME CHANGE, THE GOP WOULD LIKELY STILL CONTROL THE CONGRESS IN 2007.
THE ABOVE IS NUTHIN NEW, AND WAS HOTLY DEBATED ON THE NET + INSIDE WASHINGTON SINCE JUST AFTER 9-11. The above is why Dubya says it will = may take years to defeat Radical Islamist Terror and aligned, and by this plan he is correct. AS SAID TIMES BEFORE, THE GREATEST DANGER FOR THE USA IS NOT RADICAL IRAN PER SE, BUT THE RUSSO-CHICOM MILITARY = MILPOL REACTION [read - GLOBAL NUCLEAR WAR] TO THE USA-WEST-ALLIES USING DE FACTO LINEAR MIL FORCE TO UNILATERALLY TAKE OUT ITS RADICAL GUBMINT.
Dubya is successful in that scores -000's of violence-centric, armed Radical Islamists are being destroyed, de-armed, andor contained, while indigenous democratic movements, Govts, and local DemoCapitalism are getting stronger. THE DEMOLEFT WANTS THE OPPOSITE > THEY WANT GUBMINT + TOTALITARIANISM IN CHARGE OF EVERYDAY LIFE, WANT RADICAL ISLAM , ETAL, TO BE PAID OFF SO AS NOT TO ATTACK US, AND AMERICA UNDER ANTI-US OWG + ANTI-AMER AMERICAN SOCIALISM, WHERE THE USA PAYS EVERYBODY'S BILLS WHILE NOT BEING IN CHARGE OF ITS OWN DESTINY, GUBMINT, + AFFAIRS. A GOOD ARGUMENT CAN BE MADE THAT THE LEFTIES WANT A NATIONAL-TRANSI-GLOBAL ANARCHY/WARLORD
/MAFIA/NEPOTIST STATE, WHERE LAW + TRUTH + FREEDOM, ETC. IS ONLY AS PER HOW MUCH YOU PAY FOR IT = HOW MUCH YOU PAY NOT FOR YOU AND YOURS TO BE KILLED OR EXECUTED. GULAGS AND DEATH CAMPS ARE FOR EVERYONE ELSE, ENEMIES OF THE SOCIALIST STATE, NOT THE LEFTIES.
"USSA, not USSR" > America = Amerika must be ruled by Mackinder's World Island of Eurasia, aka Russia-China + SCO, aka Commie Asia, as long as the Lefties + TreasonCrats, etc don't have to move or live there, pay anything or be affected by any consequences. Nuthin will change in an Amerikan USSA = Global SSR/USR wid gulags + death/work camps + Motherly Commie Airborne aka United Nations [Peacekeeping]Forces in USA [NORAM] - YOU KNOW, PATRIOTISM, since STALINISM/SOVIETISM = LIFE [Glitch -not necessarily a LONG LIFE]. EVEN UNDER COMMIE-CONTROLLED "FASCISM/RIGHTISM", etc THE COMMIE BLOC ARE STILL DEMOGRAPHICALLY DYING.
US-led forces are likely to launch a limited new year offensive against Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army, blamed for sectarian death squad killings, senior Iraqi officials say. The Pentagon, in a report last month, described Mehdi Army as the biggest threat to Iraq's security and diplomats say Washington is impatient to confront them.
Several officials in the Shiite political parties that dominate Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's unity government also say they are losing patience with Sadr's supporters and predict more raids like last week's joint US-Iraqi operation in which a senior Sadr aide was killed. "There will be limited and targeted operations against members of the Mehdi Army," a senior Shiite official told Reuters. "The ground is full of surprises but we think around January 5 there will be some operations. I can say no more." British forces in the southern oil province of Basra have also been conducting major raids against groups they describe as "rogue Mehdi Army", some entrenched in Iraqi police units.
Last week, British troops blew up the headquarters of Basra's Major Crimes Unit and said they freed tortured prisoners. "The Americans want a war with the Mehdi Army," said a Western diplomat in Baghdad, who is not American or British. "They want to get rid of the militia and it seems they will succeed in getting one."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
US-led forces are likely to launch a limited new year offensive against Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army
Limited. Sigh. Sort of like saying "we're going to test the water by doing a half-a$$ed job, pi$$ a few people off when they don't get spectacular results, they'll get scared and whine about how we shouldn't do things like that, and then we'll quit it to get smacked by them the next day. I don't get it. Nobody likes the guy except some people we don't like anyway, why not just kill him and his stupid "militia" and everyone that we care about will be happy? Repeat as necessary until people feel confident that we are on their side and the problems will diminish to a policing level instead of a military one.
#3
Sounds like either wishful thinking or someone pretending to "leak" something in order to get Mookie to straighten up and fly right. If it were really going to happen, I don't think anyone would be talking about it ahead of time.
That being said, a brigade of the 2nd Infantry has just arrived in Baghdad from Mosul which has been turned over to Iraqi forces.
#4
While we're at it, where is that cataclysmic backlash of revenge attacks from Saddam's grief-stricken supporters? Keep in mind that ominous warnings about this were almost the sole focus of mainstream media reports leading up to Saddam's hanging.
There is plenty of mayhem, torture, and murder in Iraq just now, but at no more than the usual levels; and there are some indications that violence may actually be down a bit.
It is a little early yet, but we may end up consigning this one to the dustbin of history, along with various other dire warnings of the past five years: the brutal Afghan winter, the invincible ten-foot tall Pashtun warrior (slayer of empires), Robert Fisk's "masters of concealment" digging in to stop the American juggernaut dead in its tracks before Baghdad, Fallujah as an Iraqi Stalingrad, and, of course, the mythic uprising of the fabled Arab street.
#7
Does any body have the time the limited New Year Offensive will begin? And at what location? I missed the ad in the paper this morning. But I did hear that quantities of terrs are limited and all deaths will be final.
(KUNA) -- At least three Iraqis were killed by a roadside bomb which targeted a police patrol in the capital, stated a security source Tuesday. In remarks to KUNA, the source said that the roadside bomb, which also injured seven citizens, exploded in an area east of Baghdad.
On counter-terrorism, the Iraqi police arrested four gunmen today in Yousifiyah town south of the capital. The police also confiscated two anti-aircraft guns and found a large weapons cache during the operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#3
I've noticed that a lot of the comments about "AA guns" really are referring to 14.5mm machine guns, usually mounted in pairs. A few of them, especially in Somalia, have been 23mm machine guns. The Russian-built ZU-23/2 is a potent anti-personnel weapon, but it can't track fast enough to be used against jet fighters. It could be lethal against low-flying helicopters, and may be what brought a couple down, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hezbollah is also supposed to have quite a few of them. I wouldn't mind having one for my back yard. Sometimes the aircraft landing at Peterson/Co Springs Metro come in just a tad low...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/03/2007 14:31 Comments ||
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#4
Don't worry OS, I fly the prescribed pattern so don't shoot me little Chickenhawk down.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/03/2007 21:51 Comments ||
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Gunmen attacked the car of a provincial councilman northeast of Baghdad, killing the man and three of his relatives, police said Tuesday. The incident occurred Monday night on a road in Iraq's Diyala province, northeast of the Iraqi capital. Ali Majeed Salboukh, a member of the Diyala provincial council, was killed along with his brother and two other relatives, police said.
Also Tuesday, a roadside bomb killed three civilians and wounded seven others in eastern Baghdad, police said. Three of those injured were policemen. The bomb was hidden in a pile of garbage in the Camp Sarah neighborhood, a mixed area, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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Duplicate. I appreciate the in-line but please, folks, check on duplicates before posting. AoS.
Oh-oh. Tensions spiraling. Everybody duck...
GAZA (Reuters) - Clashes erupted between forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas government in Gaza on Wednesday, killing four people in the worst bout of fighting since the rivals agreed a fragile truce two weeks ago.
At least 10 people were wounded in separate incidents across the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said.
Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas declared the ceasefire in the wake of violence that escalated after Abbas called for early elections to break a political deadlock with the Islamists. It's like a light switch. Ceasefire on...ceasefire off...ceasefire on...
Hamas condemned Abbas's move as a coup to oust it less than a year after it surprised Fatah to win a parliamentary ballot. The fresh violence is likely to revive fears among Palestinians that Gaza could slip into civil war. Wow. Civil war. What a change that would be...
Among the dead were two security officials loyal to Abbas who were killed in the southern town of Khan Younis, hospital officials said. Abbas's Preventive Security force said the two were killed and another critically wounded when a Hamas police unit ambushed two of its vehicles. Hamas said the security force fired first. So this would be like the Boston cops firing on the FBI over some kinda turf war, right?
In the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, one woman was killed after getting caught in the crossfire of a fierce clash between rival forces. Nine others were wounded, mostly combatants, hospital officials said. What a shame. Must suck when there's no Jews around to blame it on...
That clash came after unknown gunmen killed a member of Abbas's Fatah faction who was on a rooftop in the town of Beit Lahiya and a car carrying Hamas security officers was ambushed. Two policemen were wounded in the ambush, one seriously, the Hamas police force said.
Gunmen also abducted four Fatah members from the streets, witnesses said. Fatah blamed Hamas, which declined to comment. Ummmmmm... we don't know yet. We're checking it out.
Hey, Mo. Ask those guys who abducted them.
While Abbas has called for fresh parliamentary and presidential elections, he has left the door open to talks with Hamas on forging a unity government that Palestinians hope will lead to the lifting of Western sanctions imposed on the Hamas administration. Abbas has not set a date for elections. Hamas says early polls would be illegal.
On top of the internal chaos, general law and order has deteriorated in Gaza in recent months. Yes, in recent...months. Jeez, it was always such a paradise...and now this.
Palestinian colleagues of a Peruvian photographer abducted by gunmen this week demanded his release on Wednesday, saying the 50-year-old's life was in danger because he needed medicine for heart disease. Sakher Abu El-Awn, Gaza office manager of the French news agency Agence France-Presse, said Jaime Razuri, who was seized outside the AFP Gaza City office on Monday, was taking several types of medication, including some for the heart problems. "We believe his life is at serious risk and we urge his captors to release him immediately," Abu El-Awn told Reuters. Good gig to pickup with a heart condition, Jaime...
Razuri's kidnapping is the latest in a spate of abductions of foreign journalists and aid workers in Gaza in the past year. All have been freed unharmed, most after one or two days in captivity. So I guess that makes it all okay?
No one has claimed responsibility for Razuri's abduction. Easter bunny maybe? Gaza Junior Achievement?
#4
This is a great tip on what life would be like under total control of the ROP.
Ceasefires would become so abundant that they would overlap. Daily, weekly, monthly, and even annual ceasefires would clog the calendar, but then, the use of a calendar suggests the ability to count, which would suffer among other civil practices, like reading, singing, and even talking.
#5
Nine others were wounded, mostly combatants, hospital officials said.
Waitafrickingminnit.
When the jihadis gun each other down, the "mostly combatants" line is trotted out.
When civilized soldiers fire on jihadis, the barest scratch on the hand of someone not holding a gun at the very moment the reporter looks is declared a war crime.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/03/2007 13:44 Comments ||
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#6
Death toll is up to 5. All fatalies are Fatah, Fatah associates or fatah family members.
#7
I call for a 2SS. That's diplomaticeze for two state solution. It's a seldom used diplomatic tool that really smart people (read "dhimmis")know will cause pathological societies to live in harmony with civilized neighbors.
It's the obvious solution to the RoP/Isreal, RoP/Vichy, RoP/Darfur, RoP/Rusky, RoP/Lebanese, RoP/Somalia, RoP/Iraq, RoP/Kashmir, RoP/(just fill in the blank darnit)......problems.
I'd do it all in one massive diplomatic orgy. I'd call it the "UN Packing Arrangement". Dhimmi Carter would of course be lead negotiator. That's a given.
#9
flash - Haaretz reports bodyguard of Hamas minister killed in blast. Oddly, Haaretz says this is unrelated to current clashes. Unfortunately this was in their immediate healines crawl, and no accompanying explanation. So what was it then? A work accident? Troubles with the gas range? and how the hell does Haaretz know? - Schnapps, rekud leat shel Argentina, rikud leat shel Eretzot HaBrit (whiskey (in Yiddish) slow dance of Argentina, slow dance of the United States - the closest my poor Hebrew can get to Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Three Palestinians were killed Wednesday in a resurgence of factional violence in Gaza, leading to fears "an already fragile truce" between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions would completely collapse.
The latest fighting came two days after Fatah and Hamas militants carried out a series of kidnappings and engaged in gunbattles in violation of a mid-December truce between the two groups, which are vying for control of the Palestinian government.
Rival gunmen poured into the streets of the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya after a 25-year-old militant from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party was shot and killed. A woman was shot in the head and seriously wounded in the ensuing gunbattle, and 12 other people were moderately hurt, hospital and security officials said.
Meanwhile...back at the ranch... Later in the afternoon, a group of gunmen ambushed Fatah-allied Palestinian security officers in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, blasting their police car with bullets and a rocket-propelled grenade, and killing two of the officers, according to witnesses. The security officers were trying to take another officer to the hospital after he was wounded in an earlier clash, Fatah officials said in a statement. The officers had stormed a house where they believed a kidnapped colleague was being held, it said.
Fatah officials blamed both attacks on Hamas, the Islamic group that controls the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet. More details at link that underscore the fragility of the latest truce.
GAZA (Reuters) - Clashes erupted between forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas government in Gaza on Wednesday, killing four people in the worst bout of fighting since the rivals agreed a fragile truce two weeks ago.
The fresh violence is likely to revive fears among Palestinians that Gaza is in a could slip into civil war.
At least 10 people were wounded in separate incidents across the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said. Among the dead were two security officials loyal to Abbas who were killed in the southern town of Khan Younis, hospital officials said. Abbas's Preventive Security force said the two were killed and another critically wounded when a Hamas police unit ambushed two of its vehicles. Hamas said the security force fired first.
In the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, one woman was killed after getting caught in the crossfire of a fierce clash between rival forces. Nine others were wounded, mostly combatants, hospital officials said.
Bet no French TV station makes a documentary about that poor woman.
That clash came after unknown gunmen killed a member of Abbas's Fatah faction who was on a rooftop in the town of Beit Lahiya and a car carrying Hamas security officers was ambushed. Two policemen were wounded in the ambush, one seriously, the Hamas police force said.
Gunmen also abducted four Fatah members from the streets, witnesses said. Fatah blamed Hamas, which declined to comment.
On top of the internal chaos, general law and order has deteriorated in Gaza in recent months.
Palestinian colleagues of a Peruvian photographer abducted by gunmen this week demanded his release on Wednesday, saying the 50-year-old's life was in danger because he needed medicine for heart disease. Sakher Abu El-Awn, Gaza office manager of the French news agency Agence France-Presse, said Jaime Razuri, who was seized outside the AFP Gaza City office on Monday, was taking several types of medication, including some for the heart problems. "We believe his life is at serious risk and we urge his captors to release him immediately," Abu El-Awn told Reuters.
If he's that fragile perhaps Gaza wasn't the best place for him to snap pics.
Razuri's kidnapping is the latest in a spate of abductions of foreign journalists and aid workers in Gaza in the past year. All have been freed unharmed, most after one or two days in captivity.
No one has claimed responsibility for Razuri's abduction.
Video possibly NSFW, don't say we didn't warn you. Hamass member killed while filming a martyrdom video for a cameraman, Eymen Muhammed Salim Cude (Ebu Zubeyr), killed in action while filming. "Oh look Mahmood I can see the back end of an RPG and the IDF tank what a great angle to film fr...Crack Whoossh..aaahhhhh it hurtz..."
#2
The tank seen in the video is a IDF Merkava Mk 1 [?] tank . It should be noted that filming from directly behind an RPG will leave a mark all it own. A very poor choice by Eymen Muhammed. The al-qassam brigades own any responsibility for sending this idiot into battle. [no sympathy from me, I laughed when I first saw this am I sick?]
What is very sobering is that outfits like Hamass will one day put biological, radiological and/or chemical weapons into the hands of such losers.
We must take very hard actions against states and organizations that harbor and use such losers in order to avoid the even more apocalyptic measures later that we'll have to take which will extinguish life in orders of magnitude greater.
#6
Was this put out by the Brave Jihadi Warriors to impress me about how brave these retarded cocksuckers are, because...it doesn't.
I'm with RD, I laughed. Your kid died because he was stupid, mumsy.
An elite Border Police unit arrested a wanted senior Tanzim operative allegedly involved in terror attacks and wounded a second wanted man on Tuesday night in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus.
The unit surrounded the house where the two men were staying, and when one tried to flee the building, police fired at him and wounded him in the lower body. The fugitive received medical care on the spot, and was later moved to an Israeli hospital for further treatment. During the firefights in the camp, a grenade was thrown at IDF troops. No IDF casualties were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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A Kassam rocket apparently aimed at Ashkelon landed in Palestinian territory in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday evening. No wounded or damaged were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
cut all water and power to Gaza. Let em starve in the dark
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/03/2007 8:46 Comments ||
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#2
Fools! That's what you get for flying it on a C-11 when the design specs call for an E-9.
Posted by: Mike ||
01/03/2007 12:22 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
That's lucky, again.
Eventually one of them is going to hit a preschool or a hospital or a resthome and ol' Dumbdick is going to have to explain why the IDF isn't allowed to do anything about it. It's unfortunate that it will take an appreciable toll of human life to get that tool to change course.
At least five members of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist group, including two Bali bombers, are hiding with Muslim extremists in Mindanao, a military official said Tuesday. There may be more than five but so far, we have identified five of them, said Brig. Gen. Juancho Sabban, adding they are being sheltered by the Abu Sayyaf group in Jolo. The Abu Sayyaf is protecting them because they cannot operate on their own in the Philippines, said Sabban whose troops have been hunting the Abu Sayyaf band in the jungles of Jolo, Sulu, since August last year.
He said military intelligence confirmed the presence of the five JI members in Jolo but the only ones whose names were released were Indonesians, Dulmatin and Patek. Sources from the intelligence community said three more JI members entered the country through the southern backdoor early last year. The companions of Dulmatin and Patek, according to the marine general, trained members of Abu Sayyaf (ASG) in making powerful explosives. Sabban said the military stumbled on the information after a raid on an Abu Sayyaf camp in Tuburan Hills, Indanan town in Sulu. When we captured the camp in Indanan . . . [we got] all of the materials they made for instructions and deployment of bombs, Sabban said.
Sabbans troops have been in the forefront of the militarys island wide campaign, called Oplan Ultimatum, to flush out Islamic extremist groups that have sought refuge in Sulu. The operations have not ended . . . out troops in fact did not have their Christmas and New Years [breaks]. Operation is ongoing . . . theres no let-up, Sabban said.
#1
Gen Sabban is the only one to go after these guys with any plan and employing opsec. What had happened in the past was the plans were leaked at SOUTHCOM, key leaders would escape and on and on. Sabban is still being PC in that he has not called out the MILF involvement on this. They are really calling the shots there and Sabban needs to go after Lipless eddie and the rest.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/03/2007 8:17 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Wow, thats Barbara, she looks very different than any of her movies and espec BIG VALLEY. On separate note, wonder why CMC or TVLand don't show BV, LANCER, or HIGH CHAPARRAL, etc.
#10
I think this was Barbara's middle- to late jailbait phase.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2007 10:10 Comments ||
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#11
High Chaparral was an AWESOME show! Has anyone had any luck finding it on DVD? I reflexively look every time I end up in a video store, and have yet to find it!
By the way, if we're talking RETRO babes, "Victoria Cannon" from High Chapparal was a hottie!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Insurgents torched a newly built school for refugee children in eastern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, in the first such attack in 2007 blamed on Taleban militants. There was a spate of similar attacks last year on schools and teachers that were mostly blamed on Taleban rebels conducting an insurgency to overthrow the government and expel foreign troops trying to bring stability. 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. Navy vessels are deployed off the coast of Somalia to make sure al-Qaida or allied jihadists don't escape the country by sea now that the once-dominant Islamist forces there are in retreat, the State Department said Wednesday. Of particular concern is the fate of three al-Qaida militants who were believed by U.S. officials to be under the protection of the Islamic Courts Union in Mogadishu until Ethiopian forces drove the Courts from power in recent days.
Thousands of refugees fleeing recent fighting between the Ethiopia-backed Somali government and the now-vanquished Islamists were stranded on Tuesday at the border with Kenya after authorities refused them entry, said officials. UN office for coordination for humanitarian affairs (Unocha) said: "About 4 000 Somalis are said to be in Dhobley along the Kenya-Somalia border, waiting, not yet able to cross." 
(AKI) - Arab and Eritrean fighters are among combatants captured when Somali transitional government forces backed by Ethiopian troops entered the southern port of Kismayo on Monday and drove out Islamist forces from their last stronghold in the country, prime minister, Ali Mohammed Ghedi told a press conference on Tuesday.
A man who took part in a protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad clearly called for the murder of American and Danish citizens, a prosecutor told a jury on Tuesday. 
(Interfax) - Two ex-militants have turned themselves in to the authoritieis in Chechnya over the past 24 hours. One of them, a resident of the village of Tolstoi-Yurt in the Groznensky district, surrendered a Kalashnikov rifle. The other claimed that he had provided food for illegal armed groups. 
MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Police have arrested five men who could have aided the escape of two fugitives of the 2004 Madrid train bombings, Spain's interior minister said Wednesday.
Three militants were killed and a landmine was detected in a border village in Jammu and Kashmir since Monday night, a police spokesman said on Tuesday. A militant of al-Badr outfit was killed in a gunbattle in Manjakote area of Poonch district in Jammu. Two more militants of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit were shot dead by security forces in Sopore township of Baramulla district, he said. 
Iran is supporting both Sunni and Shiite terrorists in the Iraqi civil war, according to secret Iranian documents captured by Americans in Iraq.
The investigation is still ongoing, he said. 
Gunmen attacked the car of a provincial councilman northeast of Baghdad, killing the man and three of his relatives, police said Tuesday. The incident occurred Monday night on a road in Iraq's Diyala province, northeast of the Iraqi capital. Ali Majeed Salboukh, a member of the Diyala provincial council, was killed along with his brother and two other relatives, police said. 
Since there is no Ash Wednesday to stop it Muzzie Gras goes on 24/7/365. This is particularly true during the weekly "Holiest Days of the Year" 
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Three Palestinians were killed Wednesday in a resurgence of factional violence in Gaza, leading to fears 
Later in the afternoon, a group of gunmen ambushed Fatah-allied Palestinian security officers in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, blasting their police car with bullets and a rocket-propelled grenade, and killing two of the officers, according to witnesses. The security officers were trying to take another officer to the hospital after he was wounded in an earlier clash, Fatah officials said in a statement. The officers had stormed a house where they believed a kidnapped colleague was being held, it said.
GAZA (Reuters) - Clashes erupted between forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Hamas government in Gaza on Wednesday, killing four people in the worst bout of fighting since the rivals agreed a fragile truce two weeks ago.
An elite Border Police unit arrested a wanted senior Tanzim operative allegedly involved in terror attacks and wounded a second wanted man on Tuesday night in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. 
