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Tater threatens 'open war' on Iraq government
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
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Afghanistan
Afghanistan detains 68 Pakistanis
The Afghan army detained 68 Pakistani men soon after they entered the country, over suspected ties with Taliban-linked rebels, the Defence Ministry said on Saturday.

Prior to the mass detention on Friday near the border in Kandahar, the ministry received intelligence that a group of Pakistanis with possible links to “terrorists” was entering the region, it said. “The army ... detained 68 unarmed Pakistani nationals yesterday. They are being investigated,” the ministry said in a statement.

General Muhammad Zahir Azimi, chief spokesman for the ministry, told AFP that the army had reports that dozens of Pakistanis linked to Taliban-led insurgents were entering the troubled region. “We had intelligence reports that a group of Pakistanis possibly linked to terrorists were entering. When our units encountered these Pakistanis, they detained them to find out if they’re linked to terrorists,” he said.

Authorities were trying to determine if the men were linked to the Taliban or if they were workers or Pakistani traders.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  "Authorities were trying to determine if the men were linked to the Taliban or if they were workers or Pakistani traders."

Hehe ... do they have goods to trade with them? No? Then they aren't traders.
Posted by: crosspatch || 04/20/2008 12:02 Comments || Top||


Afghan Commandos Emerge
U.S.-Trained Force Plays Growing Role in Fighting Insurgents
A positive story on us in Afghanistan, page 1 in WaPo. I feel faint, I'd best go lie down ...
KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- Night after night, commandos in U.S. Chinook helicopters descend into remote Afghan villages, wielding M-4 rifles as they swarm Taliban compounds. Such raids began in December in the Sabari District here, long considered too dangerous for U.S. patrols, and have already resulted in the death or capture of 30 insurgent leaders in eastern Afghanistan, according to U.S. commanders.

"The Americans are doing this," the Taliban fighters concluded, according to U.S. intelligence.

But though the commandos carry the best U.S. rifles, wear night-vision goggles and ride in armored Humvees, they are not Americans but Afghans -- trained and advised by U.S. Special Forces teams that are seeking to create a sustainable combat force that will ultimately replace them in Afghanistan.

"This is our ticket out of here," a Special Forces company commander said last month at a U.S. base in Khost, where his teams eat, sleep, train and fight alongside the commandos.

The creation of a 4,000-strong Afghan commando force marks a major evolution for U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan. After small teams of Green Berets spearheaded the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, they took the lead in combat, with the disparate Afghan militia forces they trained and paid playing a supporting role. Today, by contrast, the Special Forces advisers are putting the Afghan commandos in the lead -- coaching a self-reliant force that U.S. commanders say has emerged as a key tool against insurgents.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 04/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Commandos compete for selection and go through 12 weeks of initial training at Camp Morehead, south of Kabul, before being assigned to a battalion attached to one of five regional Afghan National Army corps

Compete for selection == show up in the right place at the right time?
Posted by: gorb || 04/20/2008 2:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Afghans are commando by nature.

In the Dutch and Anglo sense of the word.
Posted by: George Smiley || 04/20/2008 6:53 Comments || Top||

#3  See also TOPIX > VARIOUS - US COMMANDERS [Afghan] CALL FOR NEW TERROR WAR IN PAKISTAN. Expand scope of attacks inside AFghani to agz Islamist-held/controlled tribal areas inside Paki.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/20/2008 21:40 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
27 reported killed in Somalia capital
At least 27 people, including nine Ethiopian soldiers and seven Islamic militants, were killed Saturday in fierce fighting in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu, according to eyewitnesses and hospital officials.

The fighting began Saturday morning with heavy gunfire and a barrage of artillery that wreaked havoc in neighborhoods even a few kilometers away. "Ethiopian soldiers walking in numbers have spread into our neighborhood of Towfiq this morning, and that has sparked deadly clashes between them and the insurgents," resident Muna Abdi Ibrahim said from Mogadishu.

He said it appeared that the militants had ambushed the soldiers, who entered the area on foot. "The Ethiopians came to the village very quietly ... no resistance at all, but suddenly the sound of gunfire erupted, sending [us] beneath our beds for fear," he said.

Abdi Rahim Isa Adow, a spokesman for the Islamic insurgents, confirmed that seven militants had been killed but said that "a large number of Ethiopian soldiers" had also been killed.

Among the dead were 11 civilians, five of whom were killed at a tea bar in the northern part of the city by an artillery strike. At least eight civilians were admitted to Mogadishu's Madina Hospital, spokesman Dahir Dhere said. Of those, two died of their wounds.

Abdulle Muse, 52, who keeps grazing land near Barakat cemetery in northeast Mogadishu, site of another Saturday clash, said he saw at least six dead Ethiopian soldiers taken away by their comrades. A woman in another neighborhood said she saw the bodies of three Ethiopian soldiers surrounded by jubilant militants.

The fighting prompted city officials to close public transportation at an industrial road running through three neighborhoods where the clashes took place.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Courts


Bangladesh
Tales from the Bangladesh Police Log
PBCP leader killed in RAB ‘encounter’ in Naogaon
A Purba Banglar Communist Party leader was killed in an ‘encounter’ between his associates and the Rapid Action Battalion at Bhatkoi of Raninagar in Naogaon early Saturday.
Another commie bites the dust
The deceased was Sailal Hossain alias Hira, 42, of Shafikpur at Raninagar and also regional commander of the ultra-left party. The battalion said one of its teams, after coming to know of a gathering of the party men at Bhatkoi, raided the place.
Somebody sang to the cops
As the team reached the place Hira’s associates started firing on the battalion personnel forcing them to fire back.
"It's the RAB! Open fire, boys!"
Hira was wounded in the gunfight after being hit in the chest, back and the neck.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch.......rosebud...!"
The battalion took him to Raninagar Health Complex where he was declared dead.
"He's dead, Jim"
He was wanted in twelve systems five cases, including two related to murder, the battalion said. The battalion team also recovered a shutter gun, two guns, three bullets and three sharp weapons from the place.
And placed the shutter gun back in it's mahogany case, ready for the next "encounter".
Two cases were filed with the Raninagar police in this connection.

Man dies in custody, inhuman torture alleged

NARAYANGANJ, Apr 19 (UNB): A man held on suspicion of his involvement in mugging died in police custody allegedly of inhuman torture Friday night.
"Ahahahahah!!! rose....b..ud"
Refuting the allegation police said Fakir Chan (28) in his attempt to flee with hand-cuff was fatally wounded and died on way to hospital.
That would be the time honored "Shot while trying to escape" meme.
A committee with additional police super Masud Karim was formed to probe into the death of Fakir Chan. He was arrested on April 12 in connection with mugging of Tk 0.6 million (6 lakh) in front of Godnyle branch of Sonali Bank on April 6.

Rahela Begum, wife of Fakir Chan, came to Narayanganj Hospital with her three minor children on hearing the news of death of her husband. She broke down in tears and told newsmen that her husband was engaged as transport worker in Moulvibazar. She could not meet him since the arrest. Her repeated appeal to produce him to court went in vain. "I went to DB office with food for my husband Friday night but could neither meet him nor reach the food to him. ASI Babul demanded Tk 50,000 as bribe that I could not give. I waited till 9pm and returned home in frustration," said Rahela narrating her woes.
"Woe is me! Woe! Woe!"
Locals said Fakir Chan was once believed involved in inter-district ring of dacoits. Of late, he was known dealing in phensidyl with Ali Naser, a resident of Mijmiji under Siddhirganj thana.
Translation: He was in a gang of thieves and graduated to drug dealer.

20 RMG workers hurt in clash at Savar

At least 20 garment workers were injured, five of them seriously, when they are locked in clash with local goons at a garment factory in the DEPZ new zone on Saturday.
You seldom see "goon" used these days.
Sources said a clash ensued at about 8:00am between the workers of Shine Fashion Ltd and a local terrorist gang when the outsiders attacked them over Thursday’s work-abstention programme in the factory.
Ah, it's a union beef. That explains the goons.
On information, the police to the spot and resort to baton charge on the workers to bring the situation under control. Seriously injured Mohsin, Mohiuzzaman, Abul Qader, Harmuj and Ali were admitted to a hospital. The workers later struck work in protest against the attack by the `outsiders’.
They alleged that the local terrorists attacked them with the help of factory officials Nasir Uddin and Shakib Hossain.
Company brought in da mob to bust the union
The police arrested three persons—Ruhul Amin, Mohsin and Bozlu — in connection with the attack. The factory management sacked 19 workers, including Nasir and Shakib, for creating the anarchy. The officer-in-charge of Ashulia thana Kamrul Islam told the news agency that the situation returned to normal.
"All is well"
Posted by: || 04/20/2008 13:51 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What the heck is a shutter gun?

Any of you weapons experts have a clue?

Is that a variation on the world famous South Bronx "zip gun"?
Posted by: Imperial Sock Puppet || 04/20/2008 22:54 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Maoists kill two Salwa Judum members
In the continuing cycle of violence in Chhattisgarh, Maoist guerrillas hacked to death two members of Salwa Judum, an anti-Maoist civilian resistance movement backed by the government.

'Armed leftist radicals, numbering about 20, picked up two tribal youths from a forested village, Gayatapara in Bijapur district, early Sunday and killed them with sharp-edged weapons,' Ankit Garg, district superintendent of police, told reporters here Sunday.

The deceased were Salwa Judum members and had settled in Gangloor relief camp. They had returned Saturday night to their village for personal work.

The government has set up 23 make-shift relief camps in Bijapur and neighbouring Dantewada districts where about 50,000 people, mostly tribals, are living due to threats from the Maoists.

The government, to counter the Maoists threat, launched the Salwa Judum movement in June 2005.
Posted by: john frum || 04/20/2008 15:18 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Two 'terrorists' held in Nasirabad
The Nasirabad police on Saturday arrested two suspected terrorists and seized 1.6 kilogrammes of explosive material from their possession in the area of Rabi Canal, police said. Police identified the “terrorists” as Lacho and Sultan, and started an investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Pakistani Taliban executes three men
Three men were executed in public by Pakistani Taliban militants in the restive South Waziristan tribal region on Saturday for allegedly killing a teenager. The region's Assistant Political Agent, Yayha Wazir, confirmed the incident to state-run APP news agency.
Part of the Taliban's 'hearts and minds' strategy ...
The Taliban executed the three men by shooting them in public at Makeen Ada. They were "punished" for allegedly killing 15-year-old Intezar Mehsud. The three - Janan Mehsud, Farooq Wazir and an Afghan national - had allegedly murdered Intezar, a member of the Bandkhel tribe, after snatching Rs 60,000 from him.

The local Taliban "arrested" the three men and decided to execute them in public after conducting a probe into Intezar's murder.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Pakistan's missing ambassador being held by Taliban
PAKISTAN'S ambassador to Afghanistan, who went missing in February in the Khyber region, appeared on Arabic television yesterday saying he was being held by the Taliban and urging Islamabad to meet their demands. Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin appeared in a video tape on Al Arabiya television surrounded by armed militants to make his first public statement since he disappeared. "We were kidnapped by Mujahedin from the Taliban," the ambassador, wearing an open-necked shirt and looking calm, said in remarks translated from Urdu into Arabic.

Scores of people have been kidnapped in the dangerous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the ambassador's disappearance highlighted instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan – a major ally in the US-led crackdown on militants. The Pakistani government had not publicly confirmed he had been kidnapped, but a senior government official said yesterday Azizuddin was being held by militants who were demanding the release of their arrested colleagues.

In a message to Pakistan's foreign ministry undersecretary, its envoys to China and Iran, and his brother, Azizuddin said: "Because of my health condition I… appeal to them to do all they can to preserve our lives and meet the demands of the Taliban Mujahedin as soon as possible."

The ambassador was on his way to Kabul from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on February 11 when he disappeared along with his driver and bodyguard in the Khyber tribal region. Azizuddin said he, his driver and bodyguard had been held for 27 days at the time the tape was filmed.

According to a senior Arabiya journalist, the ambassador spoke about "the release of any Muslim held in Pakistan whose release is demanded by the Taliban". This appeared to refer to Taliban commander Mullah Mansour Dadullah held by Pakistan, the Arabiya journalist said, adding the tape was sent to the offices of Dubai-based Arabiya. Two days after he went missing, a spokesman for Pakistani Taliban militants denied they had kidnapped Azizuddin and the foreign ministry denied media speculation that the Taliban had demanded the release of Dadullah in exchange for the envoy.

Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said there was no mention of any demands in the four-and-a-half minute tape he had seen and he was not aware of any demands. "Yes, it is him, but… we're not in a position to verify if he's in the custody of the Taliban," Sadiq said.
As opposed to collaborating ...
A Pakistani security official said at the time the envoy was to have changed cars at the border but did not show up. Afghan President Hamid Karzai had said he was sure the envoy had been snatched.

The historic Khyber Pass is the main road link to landlocked Afghanistan in northwestern Pakistan and a major supply route for foreign forces in Afghanistan.
This article starring:
Tariq Azizuddin
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Home, home on the range.
Posted by: George Smiley || 04/20/2008 7:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe we could trade Jimmah to the Talibunnies and give the Paki minister back to his homies; that and $7 B ought to go a long way to make people happy (on both sides of the trade)
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 04/20/2008 19:32 Comments || Top||


Iraq
MND-B Soldiers kill 12 criminals
Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers killed 12 criminals and detained three in separate events in Baghdad April 20.

At 6:40 a.m., MND-B Soldiers witnessed five individuals emplacing an improvised explosive device in the Adhamiyah district. The Soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment engaged the criminals as they were emplacing the IED. The IED detonated during the engagement killing three and wounding one.

Also in Adhamiyah at approximately 8 a.m., the 1st Bn, 21st Inf. Soldiers engaged and killed seven criminals carrying three PKC machine guns, three AK-47s and a rocket propelled grenade launcher. A Stryker element supporting the mission killed two more criminals carrying AK-47s on a nearby rooftop.

In another incident, Soldiers with the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment detained two men in possession of various illegal weapons and bomb making material at approximately 4 a.m. in the East Rashid district in southern Baghdad.

“We are not initiating these engagements,” said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, 4th Infantry Division and MND-B spokesman. “Coalition forces will continue to defend ourselves against criminals who ignore the Iraqi rule of law.”
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 04/20/2008 15:07 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The shift to describing the baddies as criminals is interesting. Haven't the lefties been whining that this is all just a law enforcement problem? Maybe that's what we're turning it into. Which means the lefties will have to switch to saying it's just a self-esteem problem.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/20/2008 22:56 Comments || Top||


Huge Fight in Suq Ash Shuyukh, 40 Terrs KIA
A combined force of more than 300 Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police and Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics personnel, advised by U.S. Special Operations Forces, arrested 40 criminal militia members after coming under attack in Suq Ash Shuyukh, southeast of Nasiriyah, Iraq, April 19.

Forty criminal militia members were killed during the armed confrontation with ISF, including the group’s top two leaders. Twelve ISF members were reported wounded.

Using assault rifles and automatic weapons, the criminal militia attacked Iraqi Security Forces on the morning of April 19. Regional police and Army forces on alert in the area responded in force, overwhelming the outnumbered criminal militia fighters.

Facing a combination of armored vehicles and suppressive fire, the criminals retreated to building that contained the local Sadr Trend office.

With ISWAT providing support, additional security forces launched a counter attack, overrunning the remaining enemy defenses. The ISF entered the building and cleared it of the remaining criminals.

During the sweep of the building, ISF found a large weapons cache containing explosively formed penetrators, Katyusha rockets, rocket propelled grenade launchers and a large quantity of additional weapons and ammunition. An explosive ordnance disposal team also found several improvised explosive devices rigged to explode inside the building. All weapons were destroyed on site.

Many local Iraqis witnessed the fighting and thanked the ISF for their bravery and willingness to defend their town.

“The response of the combined ISF force represented an incredible leap forward by Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army to conduct joint operations,” said a U.S. Special Operations Forces advisor. “Iraqi police and Iraqi Army executed a counter attack against a determined enemy and quickly gained control of the situation.”

The operation was part of the Iraqi government’s continuing fight against terrorists, insurgents and criminals standing in the way of a safe and secure Iraq. In recent months, ISF personnel have assumed greater autonomy to plan and conduct these types of operations unilaterally or with Coalition forces.

Information indicated the criminal group used the city as part of its smuggling network to move improvised explosive devices, including armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators, throughout the region.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 04/20/2008 15:05 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Mahdi Army

#1  What? Many local Iraqis witnessed the fighting and thanked the ISF for their bravery and willingness to defend their town

Obviously they haven't been reading daily kos.
Posted by: anymouse || 04/20/2008 15:35 Comments || Top||

#2  the criminals retreated to building that contained the local Sadr Trend office.

trending down, I'd say....
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2008 15:42 Comments || Top||

#3  40 KIA + 40 captured. That's one mob put out of action. I wonder what the Iraqi govt is going to do with the prisoners?
Posted by: Anonymoose || 04/20/2008 16:01 Comments || Top||

#4  The Clintonistas, Libtards, the left and the over 60s Rads Etc. Etc. have already declared Iraq a COMPLETE DEFEAT.

YES..

1)"Flapping Jowls" HalfBright,

2) Richard "Chicken Hawk" Holbrooke. (yep, he is)

#3) John "Open Porfolio" Deutch.

#4) James "What's that smell in my mouth" Schlesinger

#5) David "ZERO" Gergen

#4) Christiane "Mrs. Mustache" Amanpour & Mr. Jamie "Mustache" Amanpour,

and these American Traitors will continue to do so in their speeches and writings, no matter if every Iraqi converted into a Jew or a Christian yesterday and begun practising Corruption-Free Capitalism by tomorrow.

BTW Ladies and Gentlemen:

Gird your Loins:

for after this comming demoCrap primary we will all be witness to the largest MSM campaign Ever to get their Presidential candidate elected!

This is their last hurrah! And there will be NO SHAME, and NO Balance for their LIES and Half Truths that will be sold to you as Truth for BO Plenty.

Prepare yourselves Ladies and Gentlemen The volume of lies alone will take your breath away, surely they will be without precedent.
Posted by: RD || 04/20/2008 18:28 Comments || Top||

#5  OK, I girded my loins, but should I take it off for a piss or a shower? What if I have to pee on an important news day? Ima perplexed
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2008 18:41 Comments || Top||

#6  I only gird on Tuesdays and alternating Fridays. And removing the gird in order to pee is permitted IF one eye is kept on CNN at all times while one is performing the deed.
Posted by: crosspatch || 04/20/2008 21:03 Comments || Top||

#7  I know RB is kind of freewheeling at times, but should we really be talking about girding our loins in public? :-)
Posted by: gorb || 04/20/2008 21:29 Comments || Top||

#8  as long as there's no video...puhleaze
Posted by: Frank G || 04/20/2008 21:36 Comments || Top||

#9  as long as there's no video...puhleaze

Ima just retchin way back into my ridiculose voCABulose Morphemes!!

and soo guilty as charged /an havin fun tho, self-fun! >:)
Posted by: RD || 04/20/2008 22:27 Comments || Top||

#10  Can we not have any mention of Mad Madeleine "Flapping Jowls" HalfBright and 'loins' in the same thread, please? MY loins is cringulating at the very thought. Thank you.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/20/2008 23:35 Comments || Top||


Iraqi Army Reports Headway in Basra
Iraqi soldiers took control of the last bastions of the cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s militia in Basra on Saturday, and Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad strongly endorsed the Iraqi government’s monthlong military operation against the fighters.

By Saturday evening, Basra was calm, but only after air and artillery strikes by American and British forces cleared the way for Iraqi troops to move into the Hayaniya district and other remaining Mahdi Army militia strongholds and begin house-to house searches, Iraqi officials said. Iraqi troops were meeting with little resistance, said Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, the spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry in Baghdad.

The developments followed a pattern that has been seen again and again in the Basra fighting, where Mr. Sadr’s Mahdi militia has battled Iraqi government troops to a standstill and then retreated. Why the fighters have adopted those tactics is unknown, but American military and civilian officials have repeatedly claimed that Mahdi units trained and equipped by Iran have played a major role in the unexpectedly strong resistance that government troops met in Basra.

Whether to counter those allegations or simply because, as many Iraqis have recently speculated, Mr. Sadr’s stock has recently fallen in Iranian eyes, the Iranian ambassador, Hassan Kazemi Qumi, on Saturday expressed his government’s strong support for the Iraqi assault on Basra. Even more strikingly, he called the militias in Basra “outlaws,” the same term that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has used to describe them.

“The idea of the government in Basra was to fight outlaws,” Mr. Qumi said. “This was the right of the government and the responsibility of the government. And in my opinion the government was able to achieve a positive result in Basra.”

Strikingly, however, Ambassador Qumi simultaneously condemned American-led operations against the Mahdi Army in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City, where major new clashes broke out on Saturday. He said the American-backed fighting in that densely populated district was only causing civilian casualties rather than achieving any positive result.

“The American insistence on coming and having a siege on a couple of million people in one area and striking them with warplanes and shell them randomly — many innocent people will be killed through this operation,” Mr. Qumi said. “The result of this operation will be the sabotage and destruction of buildings, and many people will leave their homes.”

The apparent stand-down by Mr. Sadr’s armed supporters in Basra, in contrast to their continued fighting in Sadr City, renewed questions about where the Sadrist movement stands in Iraq’s unstable political landscape. While his supporters have often been spoilers, they also represent the poor and disenfranchised, who were battered under Saddam Hussein, making it difficult for the government to write them off.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Mahdi Army

#1  Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad strongly endorsed the Iraqi government’s monthlong military operation against the fighters

Can I take it that it's all over but the shouting?
Posted by: gorb || 04/20/2008 1:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Looks like the NYT is trying to regain profitability.
Posted by: George Smiley || 04/20/2008 7:05 Comments || Top||

#3  I think you're right, gorb - Tater has given the government his final warning to pull back.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/20/2008 7:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Can I take it that it's all over but the shouting?

No.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/20/2008 10:59 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't think I'd sell Mookie any life insurance right now. It's about time he and his followers got the stuffing kicked out of them.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2008 14:21 Comments || Top||

#6  They've thrown him away.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 04/20/2008 22:34 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Paleoboomers Kill Themselves at Kerem Shalom Crossing
Palestinian suicide bombers from Gaza drove three explosives-laden vehicles into the Kerem Shalom goods crossing on the border with Israel early on Saturday, detonating two of them, the Israeli military said.

Three bombers were killed in the blasts and 13 Israeli soldiers were wounded, three moderately and the rest lightly, the military said.

Hamas, the Islamic group that controls the Gaza Strip, claimed responsibility for the attack. It came on the eve of the weeklong Passover holiday in Israel and hours before former President Jimmy Carter held a second meeting in Damascus with exiled leaders of Hamas, reportedly to explore the possibility of a cease-fire and a prisoner exchange between the group and Israel.

Hamas is holding an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured in a border raid on an army position not far from Kerem Shalom and taken into Gaza in June 2006. The group is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in return for the Israeli corporal.

Two more Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in Gaza on Saturday, one a member of the Hamas military wing and the other a member of the Hamas police.

Saturday’s attack on the Kerem Shalom terminal, from where essential goods are transferred into Gaza, appeared to be part of a concerted campaign by Gaza militants against the border crossings. Hamas officials have issued threats in recent weeks about an impending explosion along Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt. This attack was the fifth to have occurred along the border with Israel in the last 10 days, according to Maj. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli Army spokeswoman.

Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  and spit Carter met with these scum.
Posted by: 3dc || 04/20/2008 0:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Time for the Israelis to line up the artillery, and start walking. Leave nothing standing in Gaza that a man could hide behind. Make them either become moles or die. Then napalm the moles.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/20/2008 14:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Too bad he didn't go with them, 3dc.

In the interest of finding lots of pieces fact-finding and peace, of course.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/20/2008 14:31 Comments || Top||

#4  The elite suicide squad strikes again.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/20/2008 22:26 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Market boom injures 13 in southern Thailand
Two policemen gunned down in seperate attack

A bomb planted by suspected terrorists separatists injured 13 people including a small child in Thailand's far south on Sunday, officials said, while two policemen were killed in a rebel attack.

The explosives were hidden in a rubbish bin in front of a state railway employee's home and near a market in Yala province. They were detonated by mobile phone on Sunday morning, police said. Two policemen, a four-year-old boy and 10 other villagers were hurt by the blast and flying shrapnel and are being treated in hospital.

Later the same day, a group of about six terrorists militants opened fire on two policemen, aged 50 and 30, who were guarding a local election polling station in front of a mosque in nearby Narathiwat province. They died instantly, and the jihadis rebels stole their rifles, police said.
Posted by: ryuge || 04/20/2008 07:13 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Thai Insurgency


Muslim cleric linked to Abu Sayyaf freed
A Muslim preacher arrested by military and police operatives in Boracay Island last month was freed 8 p.m. Thursday, upon orders from a court which said it found no basis for his arrest. Muhammad Bani, 27, walked free from the detention center of the Army's Intelligence Service Group in Fort Bonifacio, 40 days after he was arrested by operatives of the Intelligence Service Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. He was met by his family and lawyer, his elder brother, Mahdi, said.

Muhammad said he is fine. “I am just happy to be home,” he said during a telephone interview. His family had earlier said he was beaten and subjected to electric shocks while at the detention center but this was denied by military officials.

Muhammad and his friend Al-Midzbar Bunajal, 24, were arrested in Boracay Island March 8. The two were about to enter the Muslim community in Sitio Ambulong in Barangay Manoc-Manoc when heavily armed men in plainclothes allegedly forced them into a vehicle and sped away.

Muhammad was arrested because he was alleged to be “Abu Tony”, one of the 59 members of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group ordered arrested by the Pasig City Regional Trial Court for the 2001 Dos Palmas kidnapping. The AFP has also accused Muhammad of links to international terror groups including the Jemaah Islamiyah.

Bunajal was released two days after their arrest because there was no charge against him, AFP spokesperson Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said in an earlier interview.
This article starring:
Muhammad Bani
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf


G'morning.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2008 09:08 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There is no thrill like having your article at the very TOP of the Defender-Scimitar and Times-Picayune!
Posted by: Bobby || 04/20/2008 9:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Hello dude


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G'night
Posted by: InsanyLah || 04/20/2008 9:27 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL Bobby. It is great, isn't it?
Posted by: ryuge || 04/20/2008 9:35 Comments || Top||

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Posted by: cricasmituito || 04/20/2008 11:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Mods - cleanup on Aisle 4, please....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 04/20/2008 12:09 Comments || Top||

#6  She's almost got the Jack Benny pose right.
Posted by: Scott R || 04/20/2008 19:00 Comments || Top||

#7  All a-Shore that's goin' a-Shore!
Posted by: Mike || 04/20/2008 22:39 Comments || Top||


Random thoughts while sitting in the MVA...
  1. Most of us aren't very pretty.
  2. If you're not very pretty, getting a tatoo won't make you look better.
  3. If you're really not very pretty, getting lots of tatoos will actually make you look worse.
  4. Black people shouldn't get tatoos, especially dark black people.
  5. If I was black, especially if I was the kind of black person who comes down with the vapors at the sight of a noose, I'd chew my arm off if it had something that looked like an owner's mark tatooed on it. I'm not sure what I'd do if it was tatooed on my neck. Chew my head off, I suppose.
  6. If you have someone named Britney's name tatooed on your neck, you'd really better hope she doesn't fall for a bass player or run off with a shoe salesman. Your next girlfriend isn't going to be named Tiffany, Jennifer, or Dolores.
  7. Some of us are fat. Others of us are ohfergawdsake-bese.
  8. If you're an ohfergawdsake-bese man, wearing your hair in a ponytail won't make you slender. It may if you're a woman, but I wouldn't count on it.
  9. Encasing a chunky body in a miniskirt and seamed stockings will attact attention, but probably not in the way you wanted.
  10. If you've got a chunky body and you decided against my advice to wear a miniskirt and seamed stockings to a crowded government office, don't sit on the floor. Eventually you'll have to get up.
  11. Most little children are charming, regardless of race or color.
  12. Most teenagers aren't, regardless of race or color.
  13. Having H A T E tatooed on your knuckles isn't going to make people well-disposed toward you, even if you have L O V E tatooed on the knuckles of the other hand.
  14. If you're approximately 30 years old and you wear a tee-shirt that says "Build [Skateboard] Ramps, Not Bombs", you've probably wasted a significant portion of your time on this earth without expending very much at all of your precious, apparently non-renewable intellect.
Posted by: Fred || 04/20/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just be happy you didn't try to get plates at the DC DMV. You would've had time to collect data for and write up a doctoral dissertation.
Posted by: Jonathan || 04/20/2008 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Fred---That is why we do stuff like that by mail in Alaska. It's like a Woody Guthrie song, "A Picture from Life's Other Side."
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/20/2008 3:38 Comments || Top||

#3  If you're really not very pretty, getting lots of tatoos will actually make you look worse.

Fred, plz consider:
If the Multi Tatted "contestant" haz a mouth full of rotten teeth protruding out beyond their lips shouldn't we consider an aesthetic exception?
Posted by: RD || 04/20/2008 4:37 Comments || Top||

#4  If you're a 30 year old of any race the baseball cap should be worn properly.
Posted by: George Smiley || 04/20/2008 6:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Having H A T E tatooed on your knuckles isn't going to make people well-disposed toward you, even if you have L O V E tatooed on the knuckles of the other hand.

Did you actually see a guy like that? Was it Robert Mitchum? Did he take his shirt off and breathe at you? Because that always scares me. It'd be scarier now that he's dead.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 04/20/2008 7:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Robert Mitchum was damn scary in Cape Fear, and it was no accident. If you've never seen it, go rent Night of the Hunter. Makes the DeNiro version look like Pee-Wee Herman...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/20/2008 8:56 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

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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.
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Meet the Mods
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Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2008-04-20
  Tater threatens 'open war' on Iraq government
Sat 2008-04-19
  UK police arrest terror suspect, conduct controlled boom
Fri 2008-04-18
  Nimroz mosque kaboom kills two dozen
Thu 2008-04-17
  Boomer kills 50 at Iraq funeral
Wed 2008-04-16
  60 die in AQI car booms
Tue 2008-04-15
  Indonesia Jugs Two JI Big Turbans
Mon 2008-04-14
  Tunisia jugs 19 for al Qaeda links
Sun 2008-04-13
  More than 200 dead as battle rages in Baghdad
Sat 2008-04-12
  Iraq military thumps Sadr City
Fri 2008-04-11
  Gunnies Off Senior Sadr Aide in Najaf
Thu 2008-04-10
  Nahal Oz fuel depot closed after attack. Surprise.
Wed 2008-04-09
  Two Israelis killed as terrorists infiltrate Nahal Oz
Tue 2008-04-08
  French Military Police Mobilized After Somalia Hijacking
Mon 2008-04-07
  Sadr City assault strains cease-fire
Sun 2008-04-06
  US troops move into Sadr City


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