On July 21, a month after the siege began, a relief column of Danish armoured reconnaissance troops reinforced by British signals specialists left the main British base at Camp Bastion to try to relieve the Pathfinders.
The column reached the outskirts of Musa Qala, only to be attacked from three sides at once. We were engaged with heavy machinegun fire and rocket-propelled grenades, and to top it off the Taliban had blocked the road with barrels, said Lance-Corporal Darren Flames Sloan, one of the British troops attached to the Danes.
A Danish Eagle armoured vehicle was destroyed by a mine and three crewmen were wounded. The Danes responded with their own heavy machineguns before calling in an American B-1B bomber to deliver the final blow before moving back into the desert to regroup. Inside the Musa Qala compound food and water had run out, and the Pathfinders were drinking goats milk. They were feeling isolated and slightly concerned as the Danes withdrew.
Five days after leaving Bastion, however, the Danes finally managed to push into the compound to be met by a group of dirty, skinny and unshaven British soldiers, all smiling like seven-year-old schoolboys on Christmas Day.
Most of us had lost a stone or more and we looked like the wild bunch, said one Pathfinder. We were unshaven, long haired, full of fleas and bugs and to be honest we didnt smell too nice.
#1
If this was 1965, commanders had a weapon against machine gun and mortar pocket tactics: napalm. Our city tactics in Iraq are lame, yet we export same to the barren countryside. Use of napalm kills more than the enemy; it kills their morale. What the hell are we afraid of? Euros? UN doormats? Bearded things with the koran in one hand and an AK in the other?
HERAT: Taliban rebels attacked a counter-narcotics police force in western Afghanistan on Friday, triggering a fierce clash that left two officers and 10 militants dead, a governor said.
In other insurgency-linked violence, the head of a programme promoting reconciliation with the Taliban was shot dead on Friday and six Taliban were killed in a battle on Thursday, officials said.
The counter-narcotics police were travelling back to their headquarters in Nimroz province when they came under attack, provincial governor Ghulam Dastageer Azad told AFP. Ten Taliban and two police were killed in two hours of fighting and two Taliban were arrested, he said. Two policemen and several Taliban were also wounded in the incident in Khashrod district, he added.
Destroying poppy: The police had been on a mission to destroy opium poppy crops. The United Nations has said that Khashrod is an important poppy-growing area, with a big increase in opium production expected in the province this year.
Afghanistan is the worlds top producer of illegal opium, which is used to make heroin, accounting for more than 90 percent of the global supply. The government said last week that 100 counter-narcotics policemen had lost their lives in violence in the past year, most of them during efforts to eradicate opium poppies.
In the southern province of Kandahar meanwhile, gunmen on motorbikes opened fire and killed the peace and reconciliation chief for the volatile Panjwayi district as he was leaving his orchards, the district chief Shah Bahram said. The official, Namatullah Sultani, was a tribal chief and headed the districts outreach to militants, who are offered an amnesty if they agree to stop fighting and support the government. This is the work of enemies of our country, said Kandahar deputy police chief, Amanullah Khan, referring to Taliban.
Separately, around six Taliban were killed when a mob of militants attacked a convoy of about 150 border police in the western province of Badghis, border police commander for western Afghanistan, Rahmatullah Safi, said. Two police were wounded when their vehicle rolled over, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
remove their cash flow, and it will kill their 'insurgency'
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
03/29/2008 11:57 Comments ||
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#3
Napalm.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2008 13:40 Comments ||
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#4
Removing the easy money of heroin is the key. I recently read that 70% of the violence is concentrated in 10% of the districts (south) where 6% of the population lives. It's also where almost all the poppies are grown.
The poppies have to be destroyed, even if we have to pay the farmers a stipend to grow food. But I don't see NATO willing to do that because of the heavier fighting that it will entail. It will be left the Afghan Army, but they need to gear up before attempting to ride around and plow under poppies.
Posted by: ed ||
03/29/2008 14:45 Comments ||
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#5
The poppies have to be destroyed, even if we have to pay the farmers a stipend to grow food.
Hell, we've been know to pay farmers not to grow food. Why look at all those farmers here. Who'd thought you could farm so well there?
(KUNA) -- The US-led coalition troops said they had killed several Taliban militants during an operation in the southern province of Helmand.
A statement from the coalition forces' Bagram base on Friday said the operation was conducted to arrest a known Taliban leader and disrupt their network in the area. The troops received fire from the militants during the search mission in Kajaki district. In exchange of fire, several militants were killed while four more people, suspected of having links with the insurgents, were taken into custody. In the statement, the coalition troops acknowledged injuries to one civilian who was not involved in the attack on the troops. Locals in the area or Afghan police or other officials could not be reached for comments immediately. Earlier, two Afghan legislators had told media that more than 30 people were killed in an air strike by the NATO troops in the same province. However, NATO officials, in their statement, had said that only Taliban militants were killed in the ground and air offensive.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Cüneyt Ciftci, a young man from Bavaria, blew himself up outside a government building in Afghanistan, killing two US soldiers and two Afghanis. SPIEGEL ONLINE has obtained a video documenting the final minutes in the life of the first German-born suicide bomber.
It's the perpetual grin that is most disturbing. The young man looks directly into the camera. He seems cheerful in his small cap and white shalwar kameez, the traditional Afghan dress. He smiles as he hoists the heavy bags of chemicals on to his shoulders. Grinning, he points skyward to Allah.
His permanent smile comes despite his knowledge -- or perhaps precisely because of it -- that he will soon die. It's impossible to hear what he is saying. Flowery suras from the Koran are dubbed over his voice. "How lucky you are, that death brings you the sunrise," sings a man's voice. "That you go to the front, that you burn in the name of Islam." Then the young man says goodbye to his companions. Before he drives off, he kneels down in the dust and prays one last time.
The man is the 28-year-old German-born Turkish citizen Cüneyt Ciftci (more...), who was born in the Bavarian town of Freising. Until April 2, 2007 he lived together with his family in Ansbach. The images come from a 45-minute DVD which SPIEGEL ONLINE obtained this week in Afghanistan from the media wing of the Taliban. SPIEGEL ONLINE was first offered the film, "Source of the Jihad," in Pakistan. A middleman with contacts to the Taliban wanted to sell it for a five-figure US dollar sum.
This article starring:
Cüneyt Ciftci
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It won't take much of this to inspire a full-throated cry of "Muzzies Out--No Exceptions!" If they're willing and happy to kill themselves, the only protection for the civilized world is to make sure they physically have no place to do so except in the hellholes they originally came from.
Posted by: Ho Chi Whimp8387 ||
03/29/2008 0:26 Comments ||
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#2
Throughout the history of mankind - at family level, at tribal level, and at formal governmental level, there has always been the challenge of behavior modification - via the concept of incentives (carrots) and sanctions (sticks).
Deterrence has always been an important part of the package.
Suicide bombing seems to be almost exclusively an Islamic specialty these days. Sanctions and deterrence don't seem very applicable concepts in this problem.
But - there is a time-honored method - that of carrying out painful reprisals. In the PC world of the 21st Century, the "collective punishment" aspect of reprisals must appear pretty unpalatable - the Israelis caught no end of grief for their policy of bulldozing the family homes of suicide bombers. But - I'll wager that more than a few would-be suicide bombers were dissuaded from proceeding with their plans by the certain knowledge that their families would suffer.
Because the Islamoboomers generally seem to carry out their attacks in countries other than those where their families reside, reprisals seem to be "off the table".
Perhaps it is time for a summit of world leaders, to hammer out a global reprisal law - that visits misery and ruin upon the families of suicide bombers, wherever those families live.
Brutal? - yes. Necessary? - probably. Will mistakes be made? - possibly.
Discriminatory? - not if the rule is applied to all races, religions, creeds, nationalities, and political flavors - and let the chips fall where they may.
Does it work? - as I recall, the horse-mounted couriers of Ghenghis Khan were renowned for their ability to move through all lands without fear of molestation - because of the widespread knowledge of the fate that awaited any community within whose jurisdiction an official courier was harmed.
At government level, only the Russians - and the Israelis - seem to have had the stomach for reprisals in recent times.
#3
I don't care where this pinhead was born, he isn't German or Bavarian. Muslims out of Western lands now.
Posted by: Harry Jong5338 ||
03/29/2008 4:10 Comments ||
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#4
Re. 'collective punishment', does the Army still use it to build unit cohesion in training - one guy errs & the whole unit runs an extra mile etc? Or is that too non-PC too?
When I was a kid and the coach didn't know who had talked while his back was turned, he made us all do push-ups, knowing that 1) he was punishing the talker, and 2) the rest of us knew who the talker was and would punish him some more later. I'm sure that's gone too.
(KUNA) -- North Korea test-fired several missiles into the sea off the country's west coast Friday, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting defense sources. The missiles were fired at approximately 10:30 a.m. (0130 GMT). The test, believed to be of Russian Styx missiles, comes one day after the North threw out all South Korean government officials from the inter-Korean industrial complex on the border in apparent disgruntlement over new President Lee Myung-bak's hard-line North Korea policy, the agency said.
The North was believed to have fired at least four missiles, but that the type could not be immediately confirmed. A Styx missile is believed to have an average range of 46 kilometers. A North Korean Navy vessel was detected earlier this week in the West Sea in what South Korean officials believed to be part of preparations for a missile launch, said the report. The presidential office reacted calmly to news that North Korea launched missiles, dismissing it as part of "ordinary military training" in the communist state. "The South Korean government regards North Korea's missile firing as merely a part of its ordinary military training," presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan was quoted as saying.
Spokesman Lee also said that Seoul would just continue to watch the missile-related situation carefully. "We're convinced that North Korea doesn't want inter-Korean relations to deteriorate." On Wednesday, President Lee urged North Korea to completely abandon its nuclear weapons program to pave the ground for inter-Korean peace and closer economic cooperation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
ION, KOMMERSANT > UKRAINE + RUSSIA CLASH AT POLTAVA; + MISSLE DEFENSE TO BE DEPLOYED AT SOCHI [Final Dubya-Vlad meeting next month].
Also frm KOMMERSANT > US TO MAKE CHOICE: PARTNERSHIP OR CONFRONTATION?, vv Russia.
(KUNA) -- Turkish authorities have aborted planned bombing of a building housing offices for the central intelligence in the southeast of the country. "Khabar Turk" website reported on Friday that up to 495 kg of explosives were set to go off and blow up the building in the province of Shirnak. But police arrested two members of the Workers Party of Kurdistan (the PKK) while the pair were trying to plant the explosives. The PKK, a group based in the southeast of the country, advocates establishing a separate Kurdish entity.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
up to 495 kg of explosives were set to go off and blow up the building
Good call... moehill rethink
PKK, advocates establishing a separate Kurdish entity.
I say its a 'state-within-a-state' virus
A 19-year-old suspect was arrested on Friday in connection with a series of highway shootings here that left two people with minor injuries, the state police said. Slade Allen Woodson was arrested at a single-story clapboard house in Virginias Albemarle County, the authorities said, after an early morning standoff with police that culminated in gunfire.
Police charged Mr. Woodson with a separate shooting at a credit union and residence in Waynesboro, Va., that took place early Thursday morning, according to local press accounts. But he was also considered a suspect in the shootings that took place later that day along a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 64 near Charlottesville, forcing the authorities to close the highway for several hours.
The shootings, which appeared to be random, occurred within an hours drive of the area near Washington that was terrorized by the sniper attacks in 2002 that left 10 people dead and 3 wounded. Six vehicles, including a tractor-trailer and a dump truck, were hit by bullets, along with a maintenance building owned by the Department of Transportation. Two drivers were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital and released.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Police in Indian-held Kashmir arrested three suspected militants over a bombing that killed one person and injured 23 others in the regions main city, officials said on Friday.
The attack last week on a flyover last week shattered months of relative calm in the disputed region, which had seen a steady fall in rebel violence since the start of a peace process between India and Pakistan in 2004. We arrested three militants allegedly involved in the blast yesterday [Thursday], said Srinagar Police chief S Mujataba. The hunt is on for three other militants, he added. The three arrested suspects were believed to be members of the regions most powerful militant group, Hizbul Mujahiddin, one of two groups that claimed responsibility for the blast, police said.
The explosion in the heart of this city of one million people destroyed parts of the flyover, damaged vehicles and shattered windows.
It was the worst atrocity since last July when seven people died in a bomb attack on a tourist bus. Authorities blamed that attack on separatist rebels. The other group which claimed responsibility for last weeks blast was the Al Madina Regiment, which police said was a front for the Pakistan-based militant organisation Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Over four-day long sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslims have further intensified, killing as many as 50 people, said officials on Friday. Clashes broke out between Orakai and Kachai tribes after firing on a Jirga killed at least 17 tribesmen including tribal elders. A local government official, Kamran Zeb, talking to newsmen said the clashes have been further intensified, adding that 15 more people were killed on late on Thursday.
He said more than 50 people including women and children have been killed in fierce clashes while dead bodies are lying inside houses and in fields. He added that both sides were using heavy weapons, mortar shells and rockets. The government has, so far, been unable to pacify both sides though reports suggested that military gunship helicopters have been dispatched to the area but fighting was still continuing. Kamran Zeb said that several villages have been affected while, hundreds of houses have been destroyed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It is not secterian clash between shia sunny, it is a clash for boundry dimarcation.
#2
I'm inclined to believe Mr. wazdan on this. As far as I can understand, in tribal/clan societies everything is part of the intertribal struggle. The tribal chief chose the religion all still follow as another expression of devotion to the tribe.
Two officers of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) believed to be involved in anti-Al Qaeda operations were gunned down on Thursday on a busy street near Regal Chowk, in Saddar, witnesses and police said. They said Inspector Mohammed Ibrahim and Sub-inspector Fazalur Rahman, posted at the IBs anti-terrorism section (ATS), were shot dead on Frere Road at around 7:20pm by two attackers who came on a motorbike Honda-125. Witnesses said the assailants fled the scene after the attack during the evening rush hour.
The witnesses said the attackers intercepted the victims, who were also on a 125cc (IDD-1976), in front of a car showroom and shot them at point-blank range. The officials were shifted to Civil Hospital, but were pronounced dead.
Tahir Naveed, a police officer, told Dawn that it was apparently a case of targeted killing. Intelligence sources told Dawn that both slain officers had been active in anti-terrorist operation.
They said the two officers were also linked with the investigation and detection of a number of terrorism-related cases, including Allama Hasan Turrabi murder case, Marriot bomb blast case and Nishtar Park bomb blast case.
The sources said Inspector Ibrahim, resident of Jubilee, Ranchore Lanes, had been posted to Dubai a week ago. He was due to leave for the Gulf state in a couple of days. The second victim, Fazal, hailed from the NWFP. He was promoted as SI a few days ago. An IB official told Dawn that the two officers had received a cash award of Rs500,000 each for their performance against Al Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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British bombers strafed Iraqs second city yesterday as an embryonic Shia civil war raised the prospect of British troops being drawn back on to the front line of the Iraq conflict. RAF Tornado GR4 bombers flew low over the city and fired warning shots at positions around Basra but the Iraqi Army had not yet asked for British troops to join the battle against Shia militia, which has left at least 120 dead since Tuesday.
The heavily armed 1 Scots Guards battle group, equipped with Challenger 2 tanks and Warrior armoured vehicles, was on alert and ready to leave its fortified airbase outside Basra as fighting spread to a string of cities across southern Iraq. The remaining 4,000 troops sat and watched from Basra airport as the Iraqi Army it helped to create struggled to defeat militias the British allowed to flourish in the city.
The intense fighting means that Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, is likely to tell the Commons next week that British troop levels will remain at about 4,100 for the next few months, abandoning plans to reduce numbers to 2,500 from the spring.
The British handed control of Basra to Iraqi forces six months ago and are reluctant to wade in again now, despite their superior firepower. Coalition forces are, though, being drawn into the new fighting that has flared up across the Shia south. US war-planes from bases to the north dropped bombs on Mahdi Army militiamen in Basra yesterday. The Mahdi militiamen are holding government troops at bay, and parading US-supplied armoured vehicles they had captured in front of television cameras.
Coalition officials claim that they were not informed of the impending Iraqi attack on rogue militias until the very last minute, stressing that it was an Iraqi-planned, Iraqi-led and Iraqi-executed operation. There were increasing signs this week that the operation may have been premature, with Iraqi security forces shaken by reports of militia-affiliated police firing on government soldiers, and of desertions from the ranks of the military.
Having sworn to fight until the militias are crushed, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, appeared to be softening his stance, offering cash to fighters who turn in their weapons and extending a three-day deadline to surrender by another ten days.
The Iraqi soldiers, popularly known as jundis among their US and British trainers and mentors, are facing well-organised guerrillas from the Mahdi Army, which has existed as a fighting force for longer than the new Iraqi Army. Residents of Basra said that the guerrillas, far from preparing to surrender, were building defensive bunkers and barricades.
We are still fighting, said a Mahdi Army spokesman in Sadr City. Nobody handed in their weapons, we will never do that for cash. Militiamen fired a steady stream of rockets and mortars from their stronghold across the city into the fortified Green Zone, where the Iraqi parliament and US and British embassies are located.
US forces were in action in Baghdad, firing helicopter rockets at militants who have started fighting across Shia areas of the capital, in particular Sadr City and the shrine district of Qaddumiya. Sadr City militiamen said that they had disabled an armoured vehicle with a roadside bomb, and that a US airstrike later destroyed by rocket fire to prevent its armoury falling into Mahdi hands.
The threat of US and British forces being dragged more deeply into what is increasingly looking like a Shia civil war in the south increased as clashes broke out in Nasariyah close to the coalitions main supply route from Kuwait to Baghdad and also in Diwaniya, Kut and the shrine city of Kerbala.
Mr al-Maliki, a previously cautious leader who has struggled to negotiate a path between the powerful Shia blocs that rule Iraq, was praised by President Bush for boldly taking on outlaw militias that have in the past caused mayhem with their antiSunni death squads, internal power struggles, oil smuggling and links to Iran.
The man widely regarded as the intellectual author of Mr Bushs surge strategy in Iraq, Fred Kagan, blamed Britains short-term approach in Basra for the upsurge in violence. He told The Times that the UK Government had ordered the withdrawal of forces to the airport without leaving behind a stable security situation.
Supporters of Hojestoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric who formed the Mahdi Army in 2003, after the US-British invasion, have framed the spreading battle as a power struggle between the Sadr bloc and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, which has its own militia, the Badr Brigades, which are also a serious presence inside Iraqs security forces. In the complex swirl of Iraqi power politics, both sides have links to the Iranian regime.
British forces in Iraq
There are 4,100 British troops in Iraq and a further 500 in Kuwait.
Ground forces include 1st Battalion Scots Guards, equipped with Challenger 2 tanks and Warrior armoured vehicles, 1st Battalion the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment and 1st Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Cheshire)
There are also 18 air units, including one Lynx helicopter squadron and one Merlin helicopter squadron. Nimrod aircaft are attached to 120 and 201 Squadrons, and elements of 24 Squadron, 30 Squadron and 70 Squadron all fly Hercules transport aircraft
Royal Navy forces include two Type 22 frigates, one survey vessel, one support tanker, two mine-hunters, one landing ship, operating in the Gulf
British casualties in Iraq: 176 dead, of whom 136 died in action. 214 wounded very seriously or seriously".
#1
the brit forces, especially the point of the spear, when given the weapons and support they need by the gov't, seem willing to shoulder their part of the burden. I don't like hearing the "all Brits are pussies" even more than "all Muzzies are terrorists". Both make little sense, and reflect badly on the utterer
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2008 19:32 Comments ||
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#2
Maybe if they'd been allowed to fire on Basra a year ago, we wouldn't have the problem there we have now....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/29/2008 20:34 Comments ||
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#3
likely Barb, although this seems strategically timed. Whether the Brits were tougher or not in th elast year may not have played a difference. Seems like the Iraqi elections coming up and early turf/image seeking might be more in play
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2008 20:47 Comments ||
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We've seen other reports which likely refer to many of these same events, but with some variation in detail. MNF pressers are probably the definitive word.
Baghdad soldiers engaged and killed 23 criminals in separate engagements in Baghdad March 28.
Soldiers from 2nd BCT, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), killed one criminal in northeastern Baghdad after seeing the individual with a rocket propelled grenade launcher in an alleyway during a patrol. You were warned to turn in your illegal weapons, "or else".
At approximately 4 p.m., a 3rd BCT, 4th Infantry Division vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in northeastern Baghdad. A number of criminals then fired on the soldiers while they attempted to recover the vehicle. Soldiers spotted and engaged two of the attackers, killing them both.
Iraqi security forces and Coalition soldiers were attacked during the early evening at a checkpoint in northwestern Baghdad. An air weapons team was called in to assist the ground force. The air weapons team fired one hellfire missile from the helicopter, targeting 10 criminals who were armed with RPG launchers and automatic weapons. All 10 were killed in the engagement. Sighted 10, snuffed same. Moral: Don't bring an RPG to a Hellfire fight?
Soldiers from 4th BCT, 1st Infantry Div., were attacked with small arms fire in southern Baghdad while on a combat patrol later in the evening. Soldiers returned fire in self defense, killing nine terrorists. Gun control is hitting what you aim at. Excellent aim, guys!
An hour later, a criminal armed with an RPG launcher attacked soldiers from 2-101 Abn. Div., striking an M1A1 Abrams. Soldiers spotted the terrorist and killed him in an exchange of gun fire. We saw this report in a different post recently, but it still warms my heart. I just want to know if the tanker used his Main Gun on the RPGer.
Along with our Iraqi security force partners, we are targeting criminals and criminal networks, and those who are choosing to disobey al-Sayyid Moqtada al-Sadrs ceasefire pledge, said Col. Allen Batschelet, chief of staff, MND-B. We will continue to conduct precision operations based on substantial evidence of criminal activity.
Posted by: Glenmore ||
03/29/2008 17:57 ||
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#1
in addition, I've read elsewhere (Confederate Yankee, Hotair, etc) that Al-Maliki's "extension" of the quit-fighting-or-die proclamation was NOT extended to 10 days. Only the turn-in of medium to-heavy-weapons time is...
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2008 18:17 Comments ||
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#2
You've got to hand it to Maliki for saying he's staying is Basra until the militias are broken. Hopefully this means there won't be some bullshit truce like in Fallujah, April 2004.
#4
We are going to use the airpower to reshape the battlespace against the Shias. Unlike two years ago, a lot of the head to head will be shouldered by the Iraqis. We will be stepping up the air support dramatically in the coming days.
#5
Moose, I think that's because most of 'em really are criminal gangs of one flavor or another. All of 'em are Shi'a so religion isn't an issue. Some of them may be bankrolled by Iran, others are just street toughs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/29/2008 19:19 Comments ||
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#6
M1A1 did not use main gun. Others in area used auto weapons fire.
Michael Yon called on his satellite phone to talk about what's going on in Iraq. I recorded it and it's up here for your listening pleasure -- nothing fancy, just a quick recording posted less than 20 minutes after it happened. Click here to listen.
A few key points: (1) It's likely to get worse before it's better; (2) No one seems to doubt Iranian backing for the violence; (3) This isn't about religion, it's about money and power; and (4) Unlike Al Qaeda in the north, this isn't so much a fight to the finish as violence as a negotiating tactic. It's not a civil war. Take a listen, and then take a moment to marvel at today's technology, which lets me do this stuff from my basement at the spur of the moment.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/29/2008 16:30 ||
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U.S. jets widened the bombing of Basra on Saturday, dropping two precision-guided bombs on a suspected militia stronghold north of the city. "My understanding was that this was a building that had people who were shooting back at Iraqi ground forces," Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman said.
"So we shot back," he added. "Now they're no longer shooting at us."
Iraqi police said that earlier in the day a U.S. warplane strafed a house and killed eight civilians, including two women and one child. Five ununiformed 'civilian' militia and three human shields?
AP Television News footage showed smoke rising from the home in Basra's Hananiyah neighborhood where the police said the civilians were killed. Pools of blood and a destroyed pickup truck were seen outside the home hit by the plane.
Sheik Nasir Abdul Hussein in Basra said the strikes came after midnight and were followed by gunmen shooting in the air. "The thunder of the aircraft frightened children," he said. "The sound smashed glasses, and the area was lighted by aircraft." Earlier reports said the strikes were in response TO gunmen shooting in the air. Knowing the ROE, I know which timeline I believe.
Hope the children understood the lesson we taught that day ...
The crackdown in Basra has provoked a violent reaction especially from al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. His followers accuse rival Shiite parties in the government of trying to crush their movement before provincial elections this fall. Their anger has led to a sharp increase in attacks against American troops in Shiite areas following months of relative calm after al-Sadr declared a unilateral cease-fire last August and recently extended it for six months.
Iraq's Health Ministry, which is close to the Sadrist movement, ... AP gets bonus points for noting that relationship
... on Saturday reported at least 75 civilians have been killed and at least 500 others injured in a week of clashes and airstrikes in Sadr City and other eastern Baghdad neighborhoods. How many of these civilians were killed by errant Mehdi mortars or roadside bombs?
The U.S. military sharply disputes the claims, having said that most of those killed were militia members. They're both militia and civilian at the same time - we saw the photos from the 'reporter' embedded with them yesterday of 'civilians' setting up a roadside bomb.
Too bad the AP hasn't learned the most basic parts of the Geneva Convention: a non-uniformed person with a rifle or bomb in his hands is not a 'civilian'.
Posted by: Glenmore ||
03/29/2008 11:43 ||
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#1
Now that the Marine "Haditha charges" have been dropped I'll bet my girlfriend* that this is the making of another Pallywood production.
BTW how 'bout the Cordination & Unity display by the MSM kicked off by the Basra Op.
Also, Nice to see AP in on it from the start too.
AP Television News footage showed smoke rising from the home in Basra's Hananiyah neighborhood where the police said the civilians were killed. Pools of blood and a destroyed pickup truck were seen outside the home hit by the plane.
"The thunder of the aircraft frightened children," he said. "The sound smashed glasses, and the area was lighted by aircraft."
Iraqi police said that earlier in the day a U.S. warplane strafed a house and killed eight civilians, including two women and one child.
Their anger has led to a sharp increase in attacks against American troops in Shiite areas following months of relative calm after al-Sadr declared a unilateral cease-fire last August and recently extended it for six months.
Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday ordered his followers to reject Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's call to surrender their arms as clashes with troops raged for a fifth straight day. "Sadr has told us not to surrender our arms except to a state that can throw out the (US) occupation," Haider al-Jabari of the Sadr movement's political bureau told AFP in the holy city of Najaf, home to the cleric's main office.
Well okay, I guess we can kill a few hundred more of your hard boyz and then ask you again to surrender your arms.
On Wednesday, Maliki gave a 72-hour deadline to Shiite fighters, mostly Mahdi Army militants loyal to the anti-American cleric, to disarm in the southern city of Basra after launching a crackdown against them a day earlier.
The deadline for surrendering heavy and medium weaponry in return for money expired on Friday. After the militia put up stiff resistance, Maliki extended it until April 8.
Bad move. Leave the deadline as it was and let everyone know you're happy to pry their heavy weapons from their cold, dead fingers ...
The crackdown on areas controlled by Sadr's militia has severely strained a freeze of Mahdi Army activities the cleric ordered last August. Since Tuesday, violence has raged across Shiite regions of Iraq, with nearly 260 people killed as Shiite fighters clashed with troops. Most of the casualties were in Sadr City, Basra, the southern city of Nasiriyah and the central cities of Kut and Hilla.
And now, the reporter segues to other news:
On Saturday, the clashes spread to other parts of the country. They erupted in the central Shiite city of Karbala where 12 "criminals" were killed, local police chief Raed Jawdat Shakir said, adding that another 25 people were arrested overnight. The death toll from similar clashes between Shiite gunmen and Iraqi and US troops in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City, stronghold of the Mahdi Army, rose to at least 75, with another 498 people reported wounded.
"Seventy-five people have been killed and 498 wounded in clashes in Sadr City in the last four days," Qassim Mohammed, a spokesman for Baghdad health directorate, told reporters in Sadr City. He accused American forces of "creating obstacles" in transporting victims of the violence to safety.
I think we need a new spokescritter for the health directorate ...
Sadr City has been wracked by fierce clashes between security forces and the militiamen since the crackdown began in Basra.
Ahmed, a resident of the slum neighbourhood of some two million people, said the situation was deteriorating. "The hospitals are overflowing with wounded. They can't take any more. Even the medical stores are closed," he said. "There is no electricity, no water or fuel. We are afraid of gunbattles. The main markets are also closed."
No problem Ahmed, listen carefully to the nice young American and Iraqi soldiers, do as you're asked to do, and it'll be over in a couple days.
A top Sadr aide in eastern Baghdad, Salman al-Afraiji, told AFP several Iraqi soldiers had come to the cleric's Sadr City office and offered to lay down their own weapons. "We told them they should keep their arms. We gave them a Koran and they went back," he said.
An AFP photographer said US-led coalition warplanes bombed the Al-Baath neighbourhood of northwest Basra early on Saturday, killing at least eight people. Several more people were feared killed, he added.
There were two more strikes later in the day, British Major Tom Holloway said, adding that at least 50 people had been killed in Basra and another 300 wounded since the fighting started.
Clashes also continued on the ground in Basra. "Last night we continued our operations in all areas of Basra," an Iraqi army officer told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that the crackdown will continue until "we have arrested all criminals."
The city is the focus of a turf war between the Mahdi Army and two rival Shiite factions -- the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the smaller Fadhila party.
Posted by: tipper ||
03/29/2008 10:11 ||
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#1
By my count, 134 dead terrorists in Baghdad. We've gone from "a bunch" to "lots" on the meter.
The highlite is the goof who fired an RPG at an M1A1. His last thoughts were "That didn't work out so well."
Air assets also caught some jolly rocketeers out in the open. Too bad, so sad.
#2
Okay, he's refused his government's call to disarm. No more talking, exterminate his followers and Sadr should end up splattered on the walls and ceiling of whatever rathole he's found in.
#5
as tu notes, expect him to do the "Nasrallah act" where he sends vitriolic video and audio from a safe (read: Iran) location to fire up the rubes while he hides
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2008 17:41 Comments ||
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BASRA, Iraq - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is vowing to remain in Basra overseeing operations against Shiite militias until security in the city is restored. Al-Maliki has told tribal leaders in the southern city that he "will not leave Basra until security is restored" and those who have taken up arms against the government are punished.
He promised to "stand up to these gangs" throughout Iraq and called Basra "a decisive and final battle."
Saturday's broadcast by government television came four days after Iraqi troops launched their crackdown against Shiite militias and gangs in the city. :-D
Posted by: www ||
03/29/2008 08:55 ||
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Several hundred Iraqis are reported to have been killed during the fighting since the operation began on March 25. A large majority of them are Mahdi Army fighters, according to the press reports. The US and Iraqi military have killed more than 70 Mahdi Army fighters in Shia neighborhood in Baghdad alone over the past three days.
Basrah has been the scene of the majority of the fighting. Major General Ali Zaidan said that 120 Mahdi Army and other Shia terrorists have been killed since the fighting began, while another 450 have been wounded. Iraqi police said they have captured 218 "militiamen" since the start of the operation on March 25. But the Mahdi Army is said to be controlling some neighborhoods in Basrah, and the Iraqi Army is meeting stiff resistance when attempting to entry these neighborhood.
US and Iraqi security forces killed 26 Mahdi Army fighters in Baghdad on March 26. Another 42 Mahdi Army fighters were killed in a series of battles throughout Baghdad on March 27. Eight of the Mahdi Army fighters were killed after they attempted to overtake an Iraqi Army checkpoint. The Iraqi soldiers beat off the attack, losing one soldier in action.
The Times Online claimed the Iraqi Army and police have abandoned checkpoints in Baghdad, but the US military denied the Mahdi Army is in control of police and Army checkpoints in Baghdad.
Heavy fighting has been reported in Al Kut, one of the main hubs of Special Groups activities in the south. The Special Groups store weapons in Al Kut after transporting them across the border from Iran. More than 40 people have been killed and 75 wounded during fighting in the city and surrounding regions
The Mahdi Army is said to have taken control of the center of the city of Nasiriyah, the capital of Dhi Qhar province.
But KUNA reports the IA is back in control of Nasiriyah.
Posted by: 3dc ||
03/29/2008 02:55 ||
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#1
Al Kut, hmmmm? Cutting off the resupply lines?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/29/2008 8:51 Comments ||
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#2
There is a Yahoo report this AM, which saderist fighters claim to be comfortable with thier positions, because they know the side streets so well. Probably have lots of tunnels between houses and blocks, so they can pop up anywhere. There fore, Maliki should give them 24 hours to send all women and children out. Brits should form a rear cordon around city.
Let the USAF do the rest, while they rest comfortably in this huddle of fighters.
ps bring penetrating munitions, because this is like our chicago of the 20's.
#4
In a way, this had to happen. The South of Iraq has been ignored while first the West, then the central-North was subdued. It is the third act of the play.
The best hope is that SOCOM learned everything there is to know about who does what to whom in the South before this began.
When this is over, the Iraq occupation can truly be said to be over, and from there, Iraq as a whole nation can begin in earnest.
#5
Perfesser, my info sez the commanders there were quite aware; there's simply not enough combat assets to address the situation there without pulling forces away from other areas that needed it as well. There was a review of forces; what could be spared were to be sent south. The Brits and the rest of the contributors were supposedly there to keep it from boiling over.
That's quite different from 'ignoring' the region.
(KUNA) -- The Multi National Force (MNF) said Friday its troops found a graveyard with 37 dead human bodies in Diyala north of Baghdad on Thursday. An MNF press release said some corpses found in the graveyard had torture marks, adding that the bodies were thought to be of people killed more than two years ago. Information from citizens led the MNF to finding the graveyard, the release pointed out. Scores of mass graves containing human bodies have been located in Iraq for many years. Some of the victims found in these graves had been killed or shot in cold blood in local, sectarian or terrorist violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Iraqi Prime Minister and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces Nouri Al-Maliki declared on Friday a 12-day deadline for militias, involved in street fighting with government troops in the southern city of Basra, to drop their arms in return for financial rewards. Al-Maliki said in a press release issued by his office that all those who possess combat weapons should hand them over to security authorities in return for financial rewards before April 8. He stressed that the ultimatum deadline is a response to the need to "solve illegal arming that threatens security and the lives and properties of citizens."
Al-Maliki had given militants a 72-hour ultimatum deadline, that ended today, to drop their weapons. He said, on Thursday, that there would be neither "retreat nor negotiations" with outlawed armed men in southern city of Basra. The three days of fighting has largely turned Basra into a ghost city, with most streets deserted, except for regulars and rag-tag gunmen, opening fire or launching rockets or mortar shells sporadically. Television networks have broadcast footages of the city, showing damaged or burnt properties. Oil exports from the city terminal was temporarily abrupted, yesterday, after one of the three oil pipelines was sabotaged.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi Parliament will hold an extraordinary session on Friday to discuss security situation and tension in Basra. Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani announced in a press release on Thursday that the session will be held Friday afternoon. The majority in the Iraqi Parliament Thursday expressed solidarity with Al-Maliki's security campaign to uproot outlawed militias in Basra.
Around 130 people have been killed and 350 injured since the campaign began in the oil-rich city on Tuesday. The operation was launched after the city appeared falling into the hands of the irregular gunmen, including followers of the hardline cleric, Muqtada Al-Sadr, chief of Al-Mehdi Army militia. In the mean time, a complete two-day curfew was imposed in Baghdad. It will end early Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
And it was so quiet during that 72 hour cease fire. /s
We have commenced coimbat operation in Basra, and have killed hundreds of your comrades. You have until April 8 to turn in your weapons, or will will kill you on sight after that, as we continute to do now. This is your only chance to escape the fight alive.
#4
I hope the US Air Force will end its unilateral ban on napalm, and burn out a dozen or so "militia strongpoints". It's ok to see a few of your buddies get bumped off now and then, but something quite different to listen to them sizzle and pop as they burn. I'm sure that will change the perspective of the war toot sweet. Of course, unless Maliki goes along with it - even endorses and ASKS for it - it'll just be another "military killing innocent civilians" meme.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/29/2008 14:42 Comments ||
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#5
Ugh, OP. Just .... ugh.
None of the soldiers I know who've served there would support the use of napalm even when frustrated with the ROE.
#6
Lotp, after watching "Fitna" I'm up for using napalm on anyplace where characters like those imams are. They need to learn that they're not the only ones who can call down hellfire and that the infidels can do it and make it stick a lot better than the ummah can.
(KUNA) -- A mortar shell targeted the office of Iraq's Vice President Tareq Al-Hashimi in the heavily fortified green zone in Baghdad, Iraqi security source said on Friday. The source told KUNA the mortar shell landed this afternoon on this office, injuring two bodyguards, but without causing any harm to Al-Hashimi because who was not in his office at that time. Mortar shell attacks have been hammering the green zone since the start of the Basra operation last Tuesday. Last night, the US embassy announced the demise of one its employees who was working and injuring two others as a result of a mortar shell attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Has their aim really improved that much or did they hit the VP's office by accident? Typically they've found it hard to just hit the IZ. They haven't had the luxury of being able to watch for where the first round hit, adjusting their aim, & repeating until they were lined up, and then firing a bunch - because by the second or third shot their position would be detected and they'd have to be running or dying.
Coalition jets dropped bombs overnight in Basra for the first time since clashes between Shiite militias and Iraqi security forces erupted in the southern oil port this week, British officials said Friday.
Shiite militants also clashed with government forces for a fourth day in Iraq's oil-rich south and sporadic fighting broke out in Baghdad, despite a weekend curfew in the capital.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has promised "no retreat" in the fight against militias in Basra despite growing anger among followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army.
The crackdown has intensified Sadrist anger over recent raids and detentions. They say US and Iraqi forces have taken advantage of their 7-month-old cease-fire to target the movement.
Al-Sadr on Thursday called for a political solution to the burgeoning crisis and an end to the "shedding of Iraqi blood." But the statement, released by a close aide, stopped short of ordering his Mahdi Army militia to halt attacks.
The situation in Basra remained tense after the Iraqis asked for airstrikes on at least two locations, a local British official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
A British defense official in London who also declined to be identified in line with department policy, however, said US fighter jets dropped the bombs while British planes provided air support.
Iraqis have been in control of security in Basra since the British withdrew last December but Britain maintains troops there to provide assistance when needed.
In Baghdad, a US helicopter also fired a Hellfire missile during fighting in the Baghdad's militia stronghold of Sadr City early Friday, killing four gunmen, military spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Stover said.
Ground forces called for the airstrike after coming under small-arms fire while clearing a main supply route at 4:10 a.m., he added.
Iraqi police and hospital officials in Sadr City said five civilians were killed and four others wounded in the attack.
The strikes underscore the risks that the US and its allies in Iraq could be drawn into an internal Shiite conflict that has threatened to unravel al-Sadr's cease-fire and spark a new cycle of violence after months of relative calm.
In political developments, the main Shiite bloc in parliament said it would not attend an emergency session called for Friday to find ways to end fighting between government forces and militiamen in southern Iraq.
Deputy parliamentary speaker Khalid al-Attiyah, also a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, said the events in the south are a law and order issue, not legislative.
The bloc has been in contact with its Kurdish allies for them to boycott Friday's session too, which would prevent a quorum, he said.
It was not immediately clear whether house speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni, would still attempt to convene a session.
Amid the crisis, the prime minister has decided to skip this weekend's Arab summit, officials said. Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi will attend the meeting in Syria instead, according to Laith Shobar, an adviser to the Shiite vice president.
The campaign to rid Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, of lawless gangs and Shiite militias _ some believed tied to nearby Iran _ is a major test for the Shiite leader and for the Iraqi military.
The ability of Iraqi leaders and security forces to control situations like this one is key to US hopes of withdrawing its forces from the country.
The prime minister put his credibility on the line by flying down to Basra on Monday and issuing a weekend deadline for the surrender of Mahdi Army militiamen loyal to al-Sadr.
But the Basra offensive has faced fierce resistance and the security operation has triggered a violent response among al-Sadr's followers in Baghdad and cities throughout the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq.
At least 12 militia fighters were killed and seven others wounded in fighting in Mahmoudiya, according to an Iraqi army official.
The local office of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, meanwhile, claimed 15 Iraqi soldiers had been captured, including two officers, in the city, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of the capital.
Fierce fighting in the Mahdi Army stronghold of Nasiriyah has also killed at least four people, including two policemen and two civilians, and wounded 14, an officer said, adding that the clashes had spread to other parts of the city.
Two Iraqi security forces also were killed and three wounded in Kut, police said.
The security officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.
Rockets or mortars also were lobbed at a US facility in the southern city of Hillah, although no casualties were reported, the military said.
Al-Maliki's office also announced Friday that it has given residents in Basra until April 8 to turn over "heavy and medium-size weapons" in return for unspecified monetary compensation.
The deadline is separate from the three-day ultimatum for gunmen to surrender their arms and renounce violence or face harsher measures, which expires later Friday, government adviser Sadiq al-Rikabi said.
The move instead appeared to be aimed at noncombatants who may have weapons like machine-guns and grenade launchers either for smuggling purposes or to sell to militants or criminal gangs.
The government also announced a days-old curfew in Basra would be loosened to allow people to move around in the city from 6am to 6pm to facilitate shopping and other necessary tasks. It called on local agencies to use the time to help residents, who have complained of food shortages and other problems amid the chaos.
Despite the order, an Associated Press staffer said he and his family were fired upon by Iraqi security forces when they tried to leave their house.
Sporadic fighting was reported in predominantly Shiite areas in eastern Baghdad despite a curfew banning unauthorized movement in the capital was imposed from 11pm Thursday to 5am Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Iraqi army forces took control on Friday of the southern city of Naseriya in the Thi-Qaar province amid continuous military operations against armed militias in various provinces in the south. Iraqi military commander Major Majed Al-Fadhli told KUNA that Naseriya is fully under control by "our security forces with the exception of some small areas which are currently being dealt with swiftly by our security forces." Al-Fadhli also denied that armed groups are controlling center part of the city, adding that military forces are controlling the inner, outer routes and outskirts of the city for raiding purposes.
The death toll as result of the operation is eight, six of them are from the militias, including injuries of tens of them. Meanwhile, small scale clashes are taking place in Shatra city north of Naseriya, however the situation is under control by the Iraqi military forces, Al-Fadhli added.
On another front, in Souq Al-Shaikh town, east of Naseriya, Al-Fadhli said Iraq military forces are sweeping the area searching for armed militias. Last night 20 armed men were injured during heavy clashes with the military forces. Eyewitnesses told KUNA the clashes began at six o'clock p.m. local time, and bomb blasts shook the city after gun fires were heard.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
If this is true, it sounds like the IA is winning this fight. What an important development in the GWOT.
Three Kassam rockets were fired at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip on Friday morning, one of them hitting the outer wall of a preschool in one of the kibbutzim in the Sha'ar Hanegev region moments after the children were taken inside by their teacher.
The teacher and a parent of one of the children suffered shock and the building was damaged.
Two other Kassam rockets that were fired at the western Negev landed in open areas and caused no wounded or damage.
Earlier, A Palestinian gunman was killed and another was wounded in an exchange of fire with IDF troops in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said early Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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We knew the Army's supposedly-dead Land Warrior high-tech uniform program still had some life in it, but now it appears that good marks from tests in the field might mean it's going to make a full recovery. The Army sent the 4/9 Infantry (aka the "Manchus") off to war loaded down with the 16-pound Land Warrior kit, and after some on-the-fly adjustments that made the gear lighter and more functional, the soldiers had talked Land Warrior up to the point where the 2nd Infantry Division's 5th Combat Brigade Team has now officially requested 1,000 more Land Warrior rigs. The main change is the removal of six pounds of inessential gear, but the crew in the 4/9 also requested and added in a "digital chem light," which allows buildings and waypoints to be marked in green on an electronic map, and restricted Land Warrior deployment to team leaders and above. There's still some tricky funding problems to solve -- some $102M needs to be set aside for the request -- but the Land Warrior project managers say it's looking promising. Now if we could only get some of that HUD monocle action on the civilian side, our morning coffee run would be a lot more interesting.
Twenty-six people, including two civilians, were killed in new fighting in civil war-wracked Sri Lanka, the military said on Friday.
A series of tit-for-tat clashes between security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) across the islands north on Thursday left at least 18 rebels and four soldiers dead, according to a military statement.
Civilians: Also two civilian workers who were collecting sand from a river bed to make cement were killed when they came under rebel fire in Amapara in the islands east on Thursday, the military said.
Terrorist gunfire killed two of them (the civilians) but the third one survived with injuries, a military statement said. The ministry refers to the LTTE as terrorists. There was no immediate comment from the LTTE and casualty claims by either side cannot be independently verified as journalists and rights workers are barred from the embattled areas. Since the start of this year, at least 2,401 rebels and 147 soldiers have been killed in fighting, according to defence ministry figures. Northern Sri Lanka has been the scene of heavy fighting between troops and Tamil rebels since the government ejected the LTTE from its eastern stronghold last year. Security forces have been trying to dismantle the Tigers de facto state in the north, but the guerrillas have been putting up stiff resistance. Tens of thousands of people have died since the LTTE launched their armed struggle in 1972 to carve out a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the the majority Sinhalese country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Liveleak in the news: Liveleak video goes viral on all major news stations
Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.
This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else. We would like to thank the thousands of people, from all backgrounds and religions, who gave us their support. They realised LiveLeak.com is a vehicle for many opinions and not just for the support of one.
Perhaps there is still hope that this situation may produce a discussion that could benefit and educate all of us as to how we can accept one anothers culture.
We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high.
#1
This is going to be a major problem. If the Muzz can collectively intimidate by threatening individual members of society such as police, judges, legislators, television announcers, etc., with violence and/or death for actions the Muzz deem harmful to Islam, how do threatened individual members of that society protect themselves?
I'd be willing to bet that vigilante action looms not far in the offing if governmental action fails to address the situation. And I suspect the vigilantes will consider that the only good Muzz is a dead one. After all, it's what the Muzz say they want, right?
Posted by: Ho Chi Whimp8387 ||
03/29/2008 0:35 Comments ||
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#2
This torrent works.
http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/4102738/Fitna_the_movie_-_English_-_AVI_and_FLV_format.4102738.TPB.torrent
Files in .flv and .avi
Muslims always seem to prove the point. This is why movies like Fitna are importent.
#6
How many downloads were there before the video was taken down? How widely disseminated is Liveleak's announcement? The announcement will do much to turn in those circles previously uninterested in far-distant international politics, bringing home the reality that on the issue of jihad there is no distance.
#8
www.fitnathemovie.com suspended service following 'complaints'. This has got to be a must-see film after all those soft-core beheading clips, etc. This has got to be near as tipping point it gets, one way or the other. If they get away with censorship through death threats like this, the smirk on their collective face will be bigger than a camel's a*se. I'm for a robust taking out of these turds, and sending a clip of Fitna to everyone I know.
#11
They threaten anyone who writes, films or shows anything critical of their bulls*it cult, and now they also use the legal system to intimidate publishers and authors, and individuals who "slander" or "libel" their precious "religion of peace". Wake up folks, they are among us and using our own rights to destroy us.
This is the most dangerous thing the West has faced since communism, and much more insidious. They never fight fair, never fight as a nation, always hide behind shadows or women and children.... these people are not to be trusted, not any of them! We need to stop their immigration into the United States immediately, while we can still manage them and convince the ones here to go home.
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.
HERAT: Taliban rebels attacked a counter-narcotics police force in western Afghanistan on Friday, triggering a fierce clash that left two officers and 10 militants dead, a governor said.
(KUNA) -- The US-led coalition troops said they had killed several Taliban militants during an operation in the southern province of Helmand.
(KUNA) -- North Korea test-fired several missiles into the sea off the country's west coast Friday, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting defense sources. The missiles were fired at approximately 10:30 a.m. (0130 GMT). The test, believed to be of Russian Styx missiles, comes one day after the North threw out all South Korean government officials from the inter-Korean industrial complex on the border in apparent disgruntlement over new President Lee Myung-bak's hard-line North Korea policy, the agency said.
(KUNA) -- Turkish authorities have aborted planned bombing of a building housing offices for the central intelligence in the southeast of the country. "Khabar Turk" website reported on Friday that up to 495 kg of explosives were set to go off and blow up the building in the province of Shirnak. But police arrested two members of the Workers Party of Kurdistan (the PKK) while the pair were trying to plant the explosives. The PKK, a group based in the southeast of the country, advocates establishing a separate Kurdish entity.
Two officers of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) believed to be involved in anti-Al Qaeda operations were gunned down on Thursday on a busy street near Regal Chowk, in Saddar, witnesses and police said. They said Inspector Mohammed Ibrahim and Sub-inspector Fazalur Rahman, posted at the IBs anti-terrorism section (ATS), were shot dead on Frere Road at around 7:20pm by two attackers who came on a motorbike Honda-125. Witnesses said the assailants fled the scene after the attack during the evening rush hour.
Twenty-six people, including two civilians, were killed in new fighting in civil war-wracked Sri Lanka, the military said on Friday.
