The Pentagon will be sending 12,000 to 15,0000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, possibly as soon as the end of this year, with planning underway for a further force buildup in 2009.
A request by Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, for three U.S. brigades with support staff has been approved. "Now that means we just need to figure out a way to get them there," adds a senior defense official.
The troops are slated to arrive earlier than has been previously discussed, on the heels of the deadliest months for American forces in Afghanistan since the war began.
The first wave of soldiers will be a U.S. Army brigade from the 10th Mountain Division, according to a senior military official. This brigade is scheduled to ship out between November and January, while two other brigades are likely to ship out "sometime in the spring or summer of next year," the official adds.
And there may be even more to come. "I've also asked for some additional forces on top of that for the current fight," says McKiernan, who wants to bolster the 101st Airborne Division in Regional Command East, which has been rocked by recent insurgent attacks. In July, nine U.S. troops were killed by insurgents who overran a combat outpost on the Kunar border of eastern Afghanistan. This week, militants tried but failed to overrun a base in Khost, just a few miles from the border, launching waves of attacks just before midnight on Monday.
Finding those particular troops to supplement the 101st, however, depends on conditions and troop levels in Iraq, adds McKiernan, who took over the NATO command in June. "That's really a zero-sum decision."
He disputes the notion that the three brigades on the way represent a troop "surge" for Afghanistan, predicting the need for an extended involvement of a larger force. "I've certainly said that we need more security capabilities," he says. "But I would not use the term 'surge,' because I think we need a sustained presence."
Both major U.S. presidential candidates have called for putting a greater military emphasis on Afghanistan, and it now appears that whoever wins the election will inherit a growing war already underway.
In March, 3,500 troops from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived to bolster NATO forces. Originally slated to return to the U.S. in October, they have seen their tour extended by one month.
The three additional brigades would considerably increase the U.S. force presence in Afghanistan, which currently stands at 34,000. Of these, 15,000 U.S. troops are under NATO command, while an additional 19,000 operate independently, primarily in the volatile eastern border region.
There has been growing concern that there are too few NATO troops to take on an emboldened Taliban. In some cases, the warlords directing attacks on American forces are the same ones the CIA backed in the 1980s when they fought Soviet troops occupying Afghanistan.
Some U.S. military officials express skepticism, however, about the impact more U.S. troops can make seven years into the war, in a large country that has grown increasingly violent—with citizens, they add, who are increasingly disillusioned. "I don't know if it's too late," says a senior military official. "But it's going to be much, much harder to turn things around at this point."
U.S. military officials are particularly concerned about the sharp spike in roadside bombs, up "30 to 40 percent" over last year, says McKiernan. "It's the largest casualty-producing event in Afghanistan."
Causing that spike is what McKiernan describes as the "deteriorating condition" of the ungoverned tribal areas of Pakistan, with a porous border that facilitates the planting of such bombs.
Clearing up ungoverned lands rife with insurgents in Pakistan, McKiernan says, is pivotal to improving security in Afghanistan. "We have a cross-border firing incident out of Pakistan almost daily, and unfortunately those aren't diminishing," he adds. "There are militant sanctuaries in Pakistan, and they operate at will."
#1
A good thing the armed forces have been hitting their increased recruitment numbers. One wonders how Candidate Obama is going to vote when increased funding requests for the war in Afghanistan come up, given how he has always thought that's the right war.
#5
IMB this move by the US indir suppors my contention that RUSSIA may actually covertly desire to have the US-NATO/Allies = EU around to help isolate a future NUCLEAR IRAN = NUCLEAR RADICAL ISLAM/JIHAD-TERR IN ASIA, entities which Russ ironically helped empower vv "the Great Game". RUSSIA > needs to keep NUCLEAR ISLAMISM from its CENTER, and hegemony- and "living space"-minded, massively overpopulated ambitious CHINA from its FAR EAST, ALL WHILE STILL MODERNIZING ITSELF + STRENGTHENING ITS GEOPOL POSITION VV USA + MAJOR WORLD POWERS.
* JUST-OVER-IRAN'S/ISLAM'S-BORDER ARMENIA SHOULD BE ECSTATIC WID BOTH RUSSIA + US-NATO/EU ON ITS SIX.
US-NATO/EU + RUSSIA IN CASPIAN + BLACK SEA REGIONS > generally induces Radical Islam to focus its Jihad = "WAR OUTSIDE OF IRAQ" agz CHINA + INDIA + SOUTH/SE ASIA, AUSTRALESIA, etc. besides AFRICA + Peripherals.
E.g. WIRED.com > WTF:HEZBOLLAH SUBMARINES IN SOUTH AMERICA [Drug trade only]???
Taliban fighters attacked a US military base in eastern Afghanistan early Tuesday and at least 13 were killed, some in their own suicide blasts, Afghan officials said. The attack on Camp Salerno, 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Pakistan, came as NATO's International Security Assistance Force was involved in heavy fighting near Kabul after French troops were ambushed Monday.
About 30 fighters tried to storm Salerno, the largest US base in eastern Afghanistan, Khost province governor Arsala Jamal told AFP. They struck a day after a suicide car bomb outside the base on Monday killed 10 Afghan labourers waiting to enter and wounded 13 more.
In Tuesday's attack the rebels were stopped about 1,000 metres (yards) from the camp, ISAF said in a statement. Troops in the base had identified them "posturing to attack the base and engaged them with small-arms fire," it said. Helicopters arrived soon afterwards and opened fire on the rebels as they tried to flee, it said.
Seven were killed, six of them suicide bombers, ISAF said. Of those, three died after they detonated their suicide vests and three other would-be suicide bombers were killed by troops, who suffered no casualties.
Afghan defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said 13 attackers were killed. Six blew themselves up, six others died in the explosions and one died in gunfire from commandos. Their bodies have been recovered," Azimi said.
"A most intense terrorist mass suicide operation was thwarted," a defence ministry statement said.
It was the biggest attack on a US military base since fighters stormed an outpost in northeastern Kunar province in July 13 and killed nine US troops, wounding 15 more. The Khost governor's office said two children had also been killed in the fighting. Some of the attackers had fled to nearby houses and corn fields and troops were searching for them, added the governor.
The insurgent Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the attack. "A group of 30 mujahedeen (holy fighters) armed with rifles and suicide jackets attacked the American base in Khost," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed said.
The hardliners, who are linked to Al-Qaeda, also claimed responsibility for Monday's suicide attack. Soon after the deadly bombing, troops were able to prevent a second suicide blast.
French NATO troops were meanwhile involved in heavy fighting Tuesday with insurgents about 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Kabul in Sarobi district, the alliance force and military officials said. The fighting erupted after insurgents attacked a military patrol Monday, the ISAF media office said. "We had a fight through the night and it is ongoing," an ISAF officer told AFP. An Afghan military official said there had been heavy casualties to both troops and rebels.
#1
In Tuesday's attack the rebels were stopped about 1,000 metres (yards) from the camp, ISAF said in a statement.
IIRC that base has a huge flat area all around it...LOL.. absoutely no chance of Talib survival.
Troops in the base had identified them "posturing to attack the base and engaged them with small-arms fire," it said. Helicopters arrived soon afterwards and opened fire on the rebels as they tried to flee, it said.
like I said, NO CHANCE!
Seven were killed, six of them suicide bombers, ISAF said. Of those, three died after they detonated their suicide vests and three other would-be suicide bombers were killed by troops, who suffered no casualties.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/19/2008 13:01 Comments ||
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#2
Forward Operating Base Salerno, Afghanistan.
Ist Talib: "Let's rush Camp Salerno."
2nd Talib: "Yea, great idea!"
Just Google Camp Salerno, for lots more angles..
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
08/19/2008 13:23 Comments ||
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U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan have discovered a rare cache of sophisticated weapons designed to kill troops with a lethal spray of ball bearings, according to a report confirmed by military officials.
Troops uncovered 89 anti-personnel rocket-propelled grenades after their patrol was fired on by insurgents in late June, according to the Triton Report. The Pentagon uses the report, produced by the British firm HMS, for information on global terrorist attacks.
The report notes that Shiite insurgents in Iraq have been photographed carrying similar weapons. They are known as Type 69 airburst, anti-personnel rockets. The rockets are designed to hit the ground near troops, bounce 6 feet and explode, killing those within 15 yards with a shower of 800 ball bearings.
In Afghanistan, the weapons were seized in Khost province, which borders Pakistan. Insurgents plan and launch attacks from havens in Pakistan.
The weapons are rarely found in Afghanistan, said Army Capt. Christian Patterson, a military spokesman there. Their presence, he said, has not changed enemy tactics or how U.S. and Afghan forces pursue insurgents. He said he could not speculate about who supplied the weapons to insurgents.
Charles McMinn, deputy research manager for HMS, said the source of the weapons is unclear. They have been found in Iraq, which bought thousands of them under Saddam Hussein, he said. There is no evidence the rockets in Afghanistan came from Iraq, he said.
Their presence in Afghanistan indicates that the Taliban, the hard-line Islamic movement that ruled there until 2001, can get its hands on increasingly sophisticated weaponry. The rockets are well-suited to combat in open terrain, McMinn said.
"It demonstrates the Taliban have the logistical capability to secure the right weapons for the environment," McMinn said.
Dakota Wood, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said Iran has been linked to supplying insurgents in Iraq with advanced weaponry, including armor-piercing roadside bombs. There are also groups in Pakistan capable of supplying weapons to insurgents. U.S. forces also collected 61 anti-tank weapons and 25 mortars from the cache.
The anti-personnel weapons could be a reaction to improved tactics and armor used by U.S. troops, Wood said. The Pentagon has been sending hundreds of new armored vehicles to Afghanistan to better protect troops there.
"The enemy responds with their own improved tactics and better munitions," Wood said.
The ultimate solution, he said, is to gather better intelligence on insurgents, killing or capturing them and improving the quality of local security forces.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/19/2008 08:38 ||
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#1
Well, they're made by Norinco, so you do the math as to where they come from.
SUROBI, Afghanistan - Insurgents ambushed a group of French parachutists outside Kabul, sparking a battle that killed 10 of the soldiers in the biggest loss of life for international forces in combat in Afghanistan in more than three years, officials said Tuesday.
The French soldiers from the 8th infantry parachute regiment were on a reconnaissance mission in the Surobi district, an area known as a militant redoubt about 30 miles east of the Afghan capital.
Qazi Suliman, the district chief in Surobi, said the ambush sparked a three-hour gunbattle. French president Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that 10 were killed and 21 wounded in the clashes. An Afghan official said that four of those soldiers had been kidnapped by insurgents and killed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't supposed to release the information. Suliman said he had a report that 13 militants were killed.
NATO officials had no immediate comment. It was the highest French military death toll in an attack since clashes in Bouake, Ivory Coast in 2004. One Western official described the attacks on the French as "complex."
France will have some 2,600 troops in Afghanistan by the end of this month, after Sarkozy pledged in April to send 700 more troops to eastern Afghanistan. Sarkozy said he plans to travel to Afghanistan to reassure French troops and that "France is at their sides."
Meanwhile, a team of suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a U.S. military base near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in a daring attack on a major American installation.
In the attack on the U.S. base just a few miles from the border with Pakistan, militants failed to gain entry to Camp Salerno in Khost city after launching waves of attacks just before midnight on Monday, said Arsallah Jamal, the governor of Khost. The attacks came a day after a suicide bomb outside the same base killed 10 civilians and wounded 13 others. Soldiers on the ground, fighter aircraft and helicopters chased the retreating militants. NATO said its forces identified the attackers about 1,000 yards outside of the base perimeter and launched helicopter gunships.
Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said Afghan soldiers, aided by U.S. troops, chased and surrounded a group of insurgents, and that six militants blew themselves up when cornered. Seven other militants died in those explosions and a rolling gun battle, he said. "(The Afghan National Army) is saying that anytime we get close to them, they detonate themselves," Jamal said.
NATO offered a slightly different account, saying three suicide bombers detonated their vests and three more were shot dead. NATO said seven attackers in total were killed. At least 13 insurgents and two Afghan civilians died in the attack, officials said. Five Afghan soldiers were wounded in the fighting, Azimi said.
The Taliban appeared to confirm the account. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said 15 militants had been dispatched for the attack on Salerno. Seven blew themselves up and eight returned to a Taliban safehouse, he said.
Jamal said the bodies of at least two dead militants were outside the checkpoint leading to the base's airport, both of whom had on vests packed with explosives, Jamal said. It wasn't clear if those militants were among the dead in Azimi's count. Militants have long targeted U.S. bases with suicide bombers, but coordinated attacks on such a major base are rare.
The attack comes a day after the top U.S. general in the region, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, issued a rare public warning that militants planned to attack civilian, military and government targets during the celebration of Independence Day on Monday.
More than 3,400 people — mostly militants — have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.
#5
They gave themselves to protect the world from the local branch of this generation's Evil. May their memories provide comfort to those who loved them, and strike fear in the hearts of those who think to attack such as they in the future.
#6
From AP:
About 100 insurgents ambushed a group of French paratroopers as they climbed a mountain pass, killing 10 soldiers in a militant stronghold outside the capital.
France's top military official, Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, said most of the French casualties came in the minutes after the team was climbing a mountain pass. The fighting lasted into nightfall, he said.
Posted by: ed ||
08/19/2008 12:01 Comments ||
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#7
An Afghan official said that four of those soldiers had been kidnapped by insurgents and killed.
Captured and murdered is more like it.
I wouldn't wanna be the next Talis that go up against the French.
French defence officials said about 100 soldiers - from France, the US and Afghanistan - were on a reconnaissance mission when bad road conditions forced them to stop their vehicles. A group of French soldiers was sent ahead on foot to check the terrain, but they were ambushed by Taleban fighters and nine were killed.
A tenth French soldier was killed when his vehicle overturned on the road.
An Afghan intelligence officer told the BBC the troops had been ambushed from several directions. "The Taleban and al-Qaeda forces used heavy machine guns and other weapons. They fired from mountains and gardens," he said.
The fighting went on for 24 hours and it is understood that reinforcements had to be called in to airlift the troops to safety.
#11
I'm not sure about the French paras, but if it had been the Foreign Legion, the attackers would find themselves hunted down like rats and eliminated. If I were a citizen of Afghanistan, I'd be VERY careful around French forces for the next six months or so.
God grant you rest in peace, honored sirs.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/19/2008 16:13 Comments ||
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#12
9 paratroopers, 1 legionaire I read in one of the stories.
#13
Their paras are the real deal, but probably more likely to stay on leash than the FL if that's what Sarko wants. They may just have to be patient before they can get even. Or subtle. Nuanced.
Is this a different guy than Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Osmani, who was killed a year or so ago?
AUSTRALIAN special forces soldiers have killed a senior Taliban commander responsible for co-ordinating attacks on government facilities in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province.
Australian troops spotted Mullah Akhtar Mohammed and his armed protection party in a remote area of Oruzgan last week, Defence said today. The special operations task group (SOTG) patrol kept watch and, after confirming there were no non-combatants in the area, called in an airstrike, defence spokesman Brigadier Brian Dawson said.
"Australian Special Forces observed the airstrike which struck the Taliban extremist group, killing Mullah Akhtar Mohammed," he said.
Mullah Akhtar Mohammed was a senior Taliban extremist commander within Oruzgan province who controlled a large force of insurgents and directed a strong campaign of intimidation and violence.
Earlier this month, another taskforce operation resulted in the capture of Taliban leader Mullah Bari Ghul, described as a key figure in providing equipment, money and foreign fighters to extremist operations in Oruzgan.
Brig. Dawson said the latest operation, in many respects, was as difficult as the capture of Mullah Bari Ghul. "It occurred in broad daylight, making concealment of the patrol difficult, it was in an extremely remote area of the province, and Mullah Akhtar Mohammed was difficult to pinpoint as he travelled within a very small group.
"Importantly, the SOTG located him, positively identified him and when it was confirmed that there were no non-combatant Afghans nearby, accurately targeted him for the successful ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) airstrike."
#1
Seems to me, lots of the HVT are falling fast these days. Hoping it means intel has moved inside.... and we got be very close.... Paki tribes following the Iraqis in joining in their own Awakenings, standing up to these mass murderers. Maybe like the Iraqis, they have finally come to accept, we are "The Strongest Tribe."
I harbor this thought deep inside of me, whether or not it is true, I just want to believe it as my own little fantasy world, that our military guys out there roaming around on those mountain tops want to give President Bush his best end-of-term gift.
#2
Good stuff ! And yes I agree Sherry . Once intel comes rolling in , it usually starts to snowball . the problem is , whittling down the disinformation and acting quickly .
Information gleened probably indicated that he worked that area so we moved some boys in to keep an eye out .
Those boys have prolly been sat in an OP overlooking a valley for some time waiting on something like this .
#9
Iraq is a far more modern country than Afghanistan. The people are exposed to a broader stream of ideas/influences than the folks in Afghanistan. Most of this just has to do with geography...the mountains isolate the 'Stan peoples. It is just more backward at the average level and so we are not going to see the same type of progress that I expect we'll see in Iraq.
(AKI) - A suicide car bomb exploded at a United States military base in Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least nine civilians and injuring 13 others amid independence day celebrations.
The blast occurred at a base in the province of Khost in eastern Afghanistan. The car bomb, containing an improvised explosive device or IED, reportedly rammed into the gate of the base, but did not reach inside.
Afghan security forces prevented a second attack moments later.
War-torn Afghanistan is also celebrating its 89th independence day from Great Britain on Monday and warnings have been issued by Afghan and US military officials that militants planned to attack public gatherings.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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A World Food Program (WFP) employee and his driver abducted in Somalia last week have been killed, their relatives said on Monday after they found their bodies.
Gunmen kidnapped the two late Friday in the town of Dinsor, around 350 kilometers west of Mogadishu, while a third who escaped said the gunmen had opened fire. "We are now about to bury them. We found the bodies and they are brutally mutilated," said Geni Abdullahi, a sister to the driver, adding that the bodies had been found some distance from the town.
The wife of the WFP worker, who gave her name only as Isho, said the bodies had been "riddled with bullets. We don't know why they killed them."
In a statement, the agency's director Josette Sheeran said she was "shocked by this senseless and barbaric attack on one of our staff." WFP said the incident marked the first violent death of an employee in the war-riven country since 1993. Five of the organization's drivers have been killed in earlier incidents this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
That makes two of us. We've been pumping food and money into that toilet for years and just like the rest of Africa, every dollar makes it worse. I bet out of a dollar, only 10 cents worth of food actually goes to a refugee or other qualified recipient. The rest goes to crooked UN guys, warlords and rebels. And whoever else can steal a bit along the way.
A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-rigged car into a police academy as recruits lined up to register for classes, killing at least 43 people. It was the deadliest attack in the North African country since the 1990s.
The Interior Ministry said 42 civilians and a police officer were killed in the attack early Tuesday in the town of Les Issers, some 35 miles east of the capital, Algiers, the state-run APS news agency said.
The blast ripped off parts of the policy academy's roof, and damaged its facade. Photos transmitted by APS showed bodies wrapped in yellow plastic bags or blankets lying amid the rubble. Nearby houses and passing cars were also damaged. Witnesses said all roads within two miles of Les Issers were blocked and cell phone networks were scrambled as police closed off the area.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but the country's al-Qaida affiliate has said it was behind a series of bombings in the past two years.
A security official at the school told The Associated Press that the attack occurred as young recruits waited to sign up for classes. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media, said the local academy was vulnerable because of the crowd of applicants at its gate. Most of the civilians killed were police recruits, but witnesses said the blast also killed several people in nearby cars.
...
Posted by: ed ||
08/19/2008 12:40 ||
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An Egyptian border policeman was shot dead by smugglers on Monday as he tried to stop a group of African migrants from crossing the border illegally into Israel, a security official said. Mohammed Ahmed Hassanein, 21, was shot in the chest by smugglers who were trying to sneak a group of African migrants into Israel from an area south of the border town of Rafah, the official told AFP. "He was taken to El-Arish hospital (in north Sinai) but died of his wounds," the official said, adding that the smugglers and migrants had escaped.
In a similar incident, border policeman Mahmoud al-Esnawi Ahmed, 21, was shot in the leg as he tried to stop smugglers from helping another group of African migrants from reaching Israel, also south of Rafah, the official said.
The 250-kilometre (155-mile) Egyptian-Israeli frontier has become a major transit route for migrants, asylum-seekers and drug smugglers. The Egyptian authorities have arrested 587 illegal immigrants since January trying to sneak across the border into Israel, a security official said earlier this month. At least 19 people have been shot dead by police on the border this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Dunno much about the guy, but whoever replaces him is almost certain to be worse. Rest well, Dr. Levy Patrick Mwanawasa. I look forward to hearing from your relatives.
A terror cell caught with details of bomb-making and suicide vests may have been plotting to attack the Queen and members of the Royal family, it can be disclosed.
The cell, which included Britain's youngest ever terrorist, arrested on his way home from his GCSE chemistry exam, was found with information about the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh along with the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex and the Princess Royal. Also on the list were Princess Michael of Kent, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and The Duke and Duchess of Kent.
Aabid Hussain Khan, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, had compiled pictures, maps and details of the opening hours of official residences from information available on the internet.
There were also details of London landmarks including the Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge and the underground as well as the New York and Washington metros and a home-made video of the Washington Memorial and World Bank in the US.
A counter-terrorism source said: "They had details of explosives and poisons along with information about London landmarks and a computer folder on Royal residences. We would be foolish to rule out the fact that they may have been planning an attack."
Detective Chief Superintendent John Parkinson, Head of the Counter Terrorism Unit in Leeds, said the men posed a "very real threat".
He added: "Let there be no doubt, these are dangerous individuals. These men were not simply in possession of material which expressed extremist views. They were also in possession of material that was operationally useful to anyone wishing to carry out an act of violence or terrorism."
Khan, 23, was yesterday convicted of three counts of possessing articles for terrorism but the jury was not told he was part of a network of international terrorists in Europe and North America.
It can now be revealed that Khan was closely connected to the alleged leader of a group of men currently awaiting trial for plotting an attack. Khan, using the name Ocean Blue, was also in regular contact with an aspiring suicide bomber in Edinburgh, Mohammed Atif Siddique.
He had also communicated regularly with three terrorists who ran websites for Al-Qaeda in Iraq from London and Kent.
Khan groomed Hammaad Munshi, then 15, the grandson of the head of a sharia court in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
Munshi, who lived with his parents and four brothers, was carrying two small bags of ball bearings, a key component of a suicide vest, when he was arrested on his way home from Westborough High School in Dewsbury on the afternoon of June 2006.
He had been running his own website selling knives and Islamic flags and using the online identity Fidadee – meaning "to die for" - on the auction website ebay.
He also had hand-written notes on martyrdom and had created and circulated technical documents via email and secure web forums on how to make Napalm, how to make a detonator and the production of home made explosives.
Operation Praline, run by the Counter-Terrorism Unit in Leeds, was sparked when police, acting on intelligence, stopped Khan at Manchester airport as he returned from Pakistan.
Officers found two computer hard drives, DVDs, forged currency, false identification papers, handwritten notes and correspondence.
Mr Denison said the collection amounted to a "terrorist encyclopaedia or library that would have enabled him or others to carry out terrorist attacks here or abroad in a variety of ways, and thereby to further the cause that appeared to be his mission in life - the war on western values and anyone who was a non-believer in the Muslim faith."
Khan, an unemployed burger-bar worker, who used the email name Delboy and FoolsandHorses claimed he was selling Islamic streetware.
It took detectives some time to unravel all Khan's aliases and some of the conversations he held in internet chat rooms, which were found on the hard drives, were discovered too late for the trial.
Khan wrote to one recipient: "If you can find a big target and take it out, like a military base in the UK, then praise be to Allah.
"Our group is growing. We need to plan better and to adapt now a few more people are showing interest. We need to confirm and to encourage...I want to have a group of at least 12 if possible."
He reassured another correspondent who had told him: "I am not too sure about strapping a bomb to myself anymore."
He also talked of explosives, warning: "You need to take care to store them in low temperatures otherwise they can kill. They must not come into contact with fire, oil or detergent."
Another associate, Sultan Muhammed, 23, a postman from Bradford, fled to London with £1,265 in cash following Khan's arrest.
When police raided his house they found maps of the London Underground, Jerusalem and Manhattan and a book entitled Suicide Bombings.
"Perhaps one of the most chilling videos was one that provided a step-by-step guide as to how to make a suicide bomber's vest, using ball bearings as shrapnel and demonstrating the effects of such a bomb," Mr Denison said.
Muhammed was found guilty of three charges of possessing articles useful for terrorism and another charge of making a record of useful for terrorism.
Munshi, now 18, was convicted of making a record useful for terrorism. A fourth defendant, Ahmed Sulieman, 30, from south London, was cleared of all charges.
Posted by: lotp ||
08/19/2008 07:27 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain
#1
Queen is not worth much since Freddie Mercury died anyway - certainly not worth attacking.
Oh,... never mind.
#2
Messing with the Queen or even talking smack about her used to quite often result in fisticuffs. My Great Grandmother was from Wales and you couldn't so much as allude to deriding the Queen if she was in earshot.
Three men were found guilty of terrorism offences on Monday, including a teenager believed by prosecutors to be the youngest Briton to be convicted of an offence under the Terrorism Act. Hammaad Munshi, 18, Aabid Hussain Khan, 23, and Sultan Muhammad, 23, were found in possession of "huge volumes" of terrorism material, including Al Qaeda documents and information on poisons and firearms, police said. Detectives said the men were "facilitators" who provided exclusive, up to date information on terrorist techniques, training, weapons and explosives. "These are not the actions of curious individuals, or even those who are sympathetic to terrorist objectives," said Detective Chief Superintendent John Parkinson, head of the Leeds Counter Terrorism Unit.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Thousands of Hindu protesters in the Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir have been arrested during street protests, police say. The demonstrators were angry over the state government's reversal of a decision not to grant a small piece of land to a trust running a Hindu shrine.
The original decision provoked anger in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley where the land was located. Life has returned to normal in the valley after earlier violent clashes. More than 21 people died last week in the Kashmir valley during police firing on protesters. Correspondents say that Muslim anger has not been abated despite the decision to revoke the land order.
Recently protesters in the valley have been demanding either independence from India or for Kashmir to become part of Pakistan. However, a call by separatist leaders for three days without demonstrations allowed shops, businesses and schools in the valley to reopen for the first time in two weeks. Hundreds of people bought supplies in the summer capital, Srinagar. "There was little food left in our house, it is good they have called off protests for sometime," Mohammad Yaqoob told the Reuters news agency near a grocery shop in Srinagar.
Correspondents say that the protests are expected to resume on Friday. After years of relative calm, the demonstrations in the valley were the biggest in a decade, analysts say. Meanwhile thousands of people were arrested and taken to jail in the Hindu-majority Jammu region on Tuesday in protest over the government's decision not to provide land to the trust.
Women waving flags surrounded the police station in Jammu town and nearby areas.
They chanted pro-India slogans and willingly put themselves forward to be arrested as a symbol of their protest. Police looked on as some protesters climbed into police station buildings - many were detained but were let off later, police said. In one incident in Jammu town, hundreds of protesters threw stones and clashed with police who responded with batons and tear gas.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/19/2008 13:18 ||
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#1
Twenty thousand protesters respond to 'jail bharo' call
2 lakh activists and sympathisers of Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti responded to the 'Jail Bharo' agitation call and courted arrest on the 49th day of ongoing agitation over the Amarnath land transfer issue. The makeshift jails, which included degree college buildings, Government schools, sports stadia and community halls, were flooded with spirited Shiv bhakts at all places.
Police authorities laboured hard to ferry them to these makeshift jails and also used tear smoke and lathi charge to disperse them at several places. The frenzy reached its crescendo as activists of the Sangarsh Samiti holding Indian Tricolour scaled fortified walls of police stations at several places to court arrest.
Even handicap people came out in large number to participate in the 'jail bharo agitation' and courted arrest with large number of women and children. Spokesman of the sangarsh samiti,Narinder Singh claimed that more than 3 lakh people from Lakhanpur to Banihal came on the streets and offered themselves for court arrest.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/19/2008 13:28 Comments ||
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#2
Police authorities laboured hard to ferry them to these makeshift jails and also used tear smoke and lathi charge to disperse them at several places.
Machine gun them down until they stop protesting, or, round them up and shove them over the LOC. Bloody vermin.
When will the non-Moslem world tire of these vile creatures?
(AKI/DAWN) - Hundreds of tribesmen in the Mohmand area in the troubled Bajaur agency have vowed to resist the local Taliban as security forces continued their operation in the troubled region. Right. It's the feel-good story of the week. We've never seen this before, have we?
Reports said that at least 20 militants had been killed in different areas of the agency on Saturday and Sunday. The militants, meanwhile, shot dead two tribesmen in Alizai area.
Troops, backed by helicopters, have been using heavy artillery in the operation.
Local people said that armed volunteers were patrolling Lar Kali and Ber Kali round the clock to stop the Taliban entering the areas. How many of them were militants last week?
They said that anti-Taliban sentiments were intensifying and the tribesmen decided not to allow militant activities in their area. "Yeah! They're really gonna get it this time!"
Groups of people in Khar, the regional headquarters of the agency, are patrolling the town to check movement of the militants.
Displaced families, meanwhile, started returning to their homes after the political administration assured them that they would be provided protection. "Oh, yasss! Rilly! When have we ever failed to protect youse?"
Assistant political agent Iqbal Khattak told Pakistani daily Dawn that the government's writ had been restored in Khar and security forces had started patrolling areas which had earlier been besieged by the local Taliban. The militants had also taken control of the main roads in the region and cut off the area from the rest of the country. "Situation is normal now and people should start routine activities," said Khattak.
Officials said that over 250,000 people had left Bajaur for other areas after security forces launched an operation.
He said that about 130 displaced families had returned to the town on Sunday. Officials said that over 250,000 people had left Bajaur for other areas after security forces launched an operation.
Sources said that troops attacked two vehicles in Mulla Syed area on Saturday evening and killed eight militants. Suspected strongholds of the militants came under fire in Inayet Kali, Mulla Kali, Jar, Haji Lawang, Jar and Damadola. According to sources, 12 militants were killed when some the positions held by them were heavily bombed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
In Anbar what was the reason that the locals turned against alQaeda?
Two part answer: we capitalized on their friction with alQaeda in competition for who actually ran the province...the local Sheiks and elders OR alQaeda. We saw a need we could fill and we paid the elders a little on the side and took some of the local boys aside and paid them too....funny what a little spare change in your pocket will do for a Moslem.
alQaeda got upset and killed a few of the locals and the bad feelings went a long way. We paid for the funerals and send cards to the families and wished we had been there. We paid a little more money to people with a grudge. Then things started getting ugly between one Moslem and another. Too bad for that.
A little way down the road we got Moslems liking being on the payroll and could you help us get this pothole fixed down at City Hall.
alQaeda dont do potholes . So we buried their butt in one and kicked in his hat.
The rule seems to be that locals dont like being told what to do by alQaeda and they can use the spare change. And when alQaeda pops a local we can say keep the change and aint it a shame you didnt deserve this shoddy treatment. And then make them a offer backed up by helicopters and a real big smile.
Its cheaper to set a little aside for the elders and let them convince the boys for you. Then look for the grudges and feed it. Feed the family at the funeral and sign up the cousins. alQaeda pops a few and threatens others and we sign up a few more. Intell makes us doing a daily map with grease pencils. Eventually we get us a location and then its just a matter of making a time for overlay.
Of course you cant trust them forever, all you have to do is get their panties off and la-di-da.
alQaeda has to bend over somewhere, pay someone to tell you where big butt lives. You dont need to march all over, just pay a local and make a movement map. The pattern will tell you the rest.
Then call in an airstrike. Find 'em, Fix 'em, fight 'em, forget 'em.
We did it in Anbar. We can do it in Afghanistan and Pakistan too. Hey, Abdrool, how would you like to make a little easy money?
#2
Very much a case of micro managed divide and conquer tactic really . Works large and small , us Brits used it to good effect for centuries , until we lost the balls to be affective .
#6
At any rate they probably don't like the army poking around their village, asking questions and pocketing anything that isn't nailed down and painted. So the practical turban might come to this conclusion himself.
Plus they're bad guys, they put the nix on any fun at all, like marriage parties and maybe a little music at night. And when you live in a shitbox like Bajaur, there probably isn't much fun to begin with.
#8
TW, in all fairness Obama didnt say hed level the country. He said hed bomb HVTs without permission. Which I think we all agree is the right thing to do. How and when the Chosen one said it was somewhat naive, and raised concerns about his lack of experience, but the substance was reasonable.
As for what we did in Anbar. Yup, thats now textbook counterinsurgency. But what was the proportion of US troops to population in Anbar? Compared to Paki troops in FATA (or even all NWFP) Not to mention that Paki troops are less competent than Americans. And maybe not real motivated on this.
#9
TW, in all fairness Obama didnt say hed level the country. He said hed bomb HVTs without permission. Which I think we all agree is the right thing to do. How and when the Chosen one said it was somewhat naive, and raised concerns about his lack of experience, but the substance was reasonable.
As for what we did in Anbar. Yup, thats now textbook counterinsurgency. But what was the proportion of US troops to population in Anbar? Compared to Paki troops in FATA (or even all NWFP) Not to mention that Paki troops are less competent than Americans. And maybe not real motivated on this.
#10
Correction noted, liberalhawk. My long-term memory has been a bit problematic for things like that, so I'd be grateful if you continue correcting my errors of fact. Separately, the article does not say the Pakistanis followed the pattern Angleton 9 described; in my ignorance I'm quite certain the Pakistani troops are incapable of it for a variety of reasons involving the national culture and the Pakistani military training at all levels. I was asking Angleton 9 if 'twas our guys had done this in the Bajaur agency.
#11
The Paks are not going to be able to implement effective COIN in the tribal areas because their troops are not disciplined enough to carry it out. There is too much of a cultural gap, IMO, and the Pak troops will bully, steal and act like they are the new boss in town. The locals will hate them.
We are not going to do this in Pakistan because we don't have the troop strength to do it. Since neither we nor that Paks are going to do the nice step by step coin program in the tribal regions, we can only expect to keep killing them in A-Stan in bunches.
#12
Actually, I think what's finally turning the "locals" is that more and more, Pakistani Taliban are Punjabis or Sindis, not Pashtuns. The Pashtuns don't like outsiders sniffing around their wives, daughters, and favorite goats. Even the Afghanistani Pashtuns are considered "different". There may well be an "Anbar Awakening" movement in the Tribal Areas, and not one funded or controlled by the US.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/19/2008 17:50 Comments ||
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Three more persons were killed and several injured in continuing violence in the restive Swat Valley while the security forces kept targeting suspected positions of militants in different localities.
The security forces allegedly opened fire on a van at Fatehpur, Khwazakhela, killing its conductor, Sardar Ali and wounding two persons identified as Omar Rahman and Bashir.The incident triggered a protest from the people who also blocked the road for some time and condemned the killing of an innocent person. However, they dispersed peacefully after having talks with the military officials.
In another incident, alleged Taliban militants fired at an anti-Taliban man on Mamdheri Road and killed him on the spot. He was shot dead in front of his young son.
Taliban also killed a cop, Fazl Sardar, at the frequently-attacked Wenai checkpost. He was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Barikot. Police officials and people from all walks of life participated in his funeral in large number. The forces and the militants were reported to have traded heavy fire overnight after the killing of the cop.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Security forces continued military offensive against the Taliban fighters in the restive Bajaur Agency, killing five more suspected militants and destroying house of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) deputy leader Maulana Faqir Mohammad in Chopatra village on Monday.
Also, families of the five slain Army soldiers, who died in an ambush on August 8 in Loisam by the militants, reportedly reached the paramilitary Bajaur Scouts headquarters in Khar to request the authorities to expedite efforts for recovering their bodies lying in the maize fields in Loisam area.
Military gunship helicopters continued targeting suspected hideouts of the militants in their strongholds of Salarzai and Mamond subdivisions. Military sources said two suspected militants were killed when gunship helicopters fired upon them at Mandal village of the Salarzai Tehsil.
Both the militants were reportedly armed with AK-47 assault rifles and had attacked the military Cobra helicopter with rocket propelled grenades (RPG) but missed the target.The sources said the militants, after the attack on the helicopter, were fleeing towards a house, which they were using as hideout.
They also reported that militants in some of the areas occupied houses vacated by the frightened tribesmen in many parts of the troubled region.Similarly, the "panic-creating" gunship helicopters that are usually flying over the militant-dominated areas of Salarzai and Mamond subdivisions and in Loisam, targetted a number of suspected hideouts but there were no details about the casualties inflicted on the Taliban fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Twenty-three more people were killed in the strife-torn Kurram Agency on Monday, raising the tally of the dead to 227 as the ongoing tribal clashes entered the 12th day. Sources said 30 others were injured in various parts of the agency between Sunday and Monday night. However, unconfirmed reports said 50 people were killed and 51 others injured. During the clashes, both the groups used heavy and sophisticated weaponry, which damaged many houses in Khar Kalley and Sadda city, Ragha Kalley, Inzarai, Alizai, Sangina, Balishkhel, Karman, Parachamkani, Terri Mangal, Kotarri, Said Akbar Kaley Ibrahimzai and other villages.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Welcoming President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf's resignation, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud on Monday offered to halt the militant activities and hold peace talks with the elected government if the military operations in Bajaur and Swat were stopped.
In a statement conveyed to this correspondent through his spokesman Maulvi Omar, the leading Taliban commander said that hopefully the elected government would give up the "pro-US policies pursued by the Musharraf-led regime".
"Musharraf had never been sincere with Pakistan and its people. He always preferred his personal interests to those of the country and imposed the US war on peaceful and true Pakistanis of the tribal areas," Omar quoted the TTP chief as saying.
According to Omar, Baitullah contacted the TTP Shura members after Musharraf's resignation and all of them assured to stop militant activities and hold peace talks with the government provided "the government guaranteed that it would stop pro-US policies adopted by the former military dictator".
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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KABUL (AFP) - Pakistan's intelligence agency is helping the Taliban to pursue an insurgency in Afghanistan that has seen a 50 percent hike in attacks in some areas this year, the NATO commander here told AFP. The number of foreign fighters, including Europeans, is also increasing here while NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) still lacks the soldiers it needs, US General David D. McKiernan said in a weekend interview.
"There certainly is a level of ISI complicity in the militant areas in Pakistan and organisations such as the Taliban," the four-star general said, echoing allegations by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and others. "I can't say to what level of leadership that goes to but there are indications of complicity on the part of ISI... to the extent that they are facilitating these militant groups that come out of the tribal areas in Pakistan."
Karzai has directly accused the ISI of fuelling the unrest in Afghanistan, which sees near daily militant attacks, but Pakistan has rejected the claim.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The Pakis better remember what The One would do if he got to office. And McCain might be worse.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- "There are the bloodstains on the wall, and here it is dried on the floor," says Abu Muhanad as he walks through a torture chamber in a Baghdad mosque where more than two dozen bodies have been found. Chunks of hair waft lazily across the floor in the hot Baghdad breeze.
"This was the torture room," says Muhanad, the leader of a U.S.-backed armed group that now controls the mosque. "This is what they used for hanging," he says, pointing to a cord dangling from the ceiling. "Here is a chain we found tied to an old man's body." Go inside the mosque's torture chamber "
The horrific scene at this southwestern Baghdad mosque is what officials say was the work of a Shia militia known as the Mehdi Army. Residents who live near the mosque say they could hear the victims' screams. The militia had been in control of the mosque, called Adib al-Jumaili, for at least a year and a half. Watch mosque atrocities uncovered "
The neighborhood lies in an area that became one of the capital's many sectarian fault lines when violence was at its worst.
It's been about three months since the Mehdi Army, loyal to radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr abandoned this mosque, as it withdrew from several strongholds across the country. Spray painted on the walls is a chilling warning: "Spies, you will dig your own graves. Long live the Mehdi Army."
Now the mosque is under the watch of the Sons of Iraq, a local armed group that is largely financed by the Americans working alongside the Iraqi police. They are charged with trying to keep the peace in the neighborhood.
Muhanad is their leader. "We found this chain on an old man's corpse that we dug out of the grave," he says, gesturing to a bloodied chain on the floor. "We recovered about 22 corpses and then another five."
Only now are people able to understand the true magnitude of the Shia militia's atrocities and the brutal laws they were enforcing on the people.
"This was my son's grave," says Abu Wissam pointing to one of the many shallow holes in the mosque's garden. "We recovered his corpse completely rotten. His hands and legs were amputated and his head was decapitated."
"He was just a college graduate," his mother sobs clutching her 25-year-old son's photo.
They say the Mehdi Army abducted their son about a year ago, accusing him of being a traitor. They shot up and looted his home. The family fled. A gruesome video of their son's mutilated body was delivered to their doorstep.
"They [the militia] still raid our homes," says Abu Wissam. "Their families are in the district. The day before yesterday, at noon, they tried to assassinate me, but I was able to call the police for help."
The neighborhood is eerily deserted. Most of the residents fled the militia's reign; many who stayed bore the brunt of the violence. Homes stand abandoned, shops shuttered, buildings shot up. A single car drives down the main street as a pack of dogs runs through the twisted piles of metal that was once an outdoor market.
Lingering at the mosque are a handful of residents whose loved ones were also abducted, looking for clues. They said they were just taking him for a few minutes, for an investigation," says Karima, who only wanted to be identified by her first name, as her eyes filled with tears. "But they never released him and we heard he might be buried behind the mosque."
Umm Diab's breath comes in shallow gasps as tears flow from her turquoise-green eyes. She wipes them away using the corner of her abaya. In her hand, there's a passport photo of her father, who was abducted by the militia. All we want are their dead bodies," she says.
While the Mehdi Army has moved out of this mosque and are less visible on the street, residents know that they're not gone. They're still threatening us," says Umm Diab.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
08/19/2008 14:28 ||
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BAGHDAD: Iraqi troops raided local government offices in the volatile Diyala province on Tuesday, arresting a Sunni provincial council member and a university president who was led away hooded and handcuffed, officials said. The provincial council suspended cooperation with the federal government in protest, and Iraq's main Sunni Arab party accused the Shiite-dominated security forces of sectarianism.
Diyala, which has a Shiite governor despite a Sunni Arab plurality, has proven among the most difficult of Iraq's 18 provinces to pacify. It is also a base for al-Qaida in Iraq, the deadliest of the country's terror networks. The new arrests could deepen Sunni resentment in Diyala and hamper U.S. efforts to co-opt former Sunni fighters who last year revolted against al-Qaida.
Before dawn, troops swept through the provincial council complex in downtown Baqouba, north of Baghdad, then advanced to the nearby office of the provincial governor, Raad Rashid al-Tamimi, officials said. Government troops kicked in doors and exchanged fire with the governor's guards. The governor's secretary, Abbas al-Tamimi, was killed and four guards were injured in the raid, police said.
Later Tuesday, the governor, surrounded by local security forces, silently led a funeral procession, walking behind the flower-draped coffin of his secretary.
The head of the provincial council's security committee, Hussein al-Zubaidi, a fellow Sunni, was also arrested, police said.
The Sunni president of Diyala University, Nazar al-Khafaji, was taken from his home handcuffed, his head covered by a hood, according to his nephew. Troops also seized three computers and several books, said the nephew, Ismail Ibrahim Sabi, who was in his uncle's house at the time and works for him as a driver.
A senior Iraqi army official said there were complaints that both al-Khafaji and al-Zubaidi were involved in killings and that they would be brought before a judge. The official said al-Khafaji is a suspect in the killing of several professors at the university, but did not provide any evidence to back up his claims.
The 41-member provincial council demanded an investigation into the raids and said it was suspending its activities in the meantime. Council chief Ibrahim Bajilan said officials had cooperated with the Iraqi security forces and were angered when al-Zubaidi was arrested. "It was a barbaric act despite all the facilities we offered to this force, which didn't respect the law," Bajilan said in a telephone interview.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni faction, said in a statement that the raids were a sign that "sectarianism remains the sole motive of the security forces."
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a military operation in the province last month, hoping to replicate successes against Shiite and Sunni militants in Baghdad, the southern city of Basra and the northern city of Mosul. Police said Iraqi forces were backed by U.S. helicopters during the raid on the governor's office. The U.S. military said attack aircraft were in the area but not involved in the operation.
The governor, a Shiite, was not in his office at the time. Despite not being a majority in the province, Shiites dominate elected offices because Sunnis boycotted the 2005 provincial elections. U.S. and Iraqi officials are hoping upcoming provincial elections will more equitably redistribute power.
Last week, suicide bombers struck twice in Baqouba, killing three people. One of the attacks narrowly missed the convoy of the governor, al-Tamimi.
Meanwhile in the southern Iraqi city of Amarah, a rocket attack killed a U.S. soldier Tuesday, the military said. The death brings to 4,144 the number of American military personnel who have died in the Iraq war, according to an AP count.
My favorite quotes:
After the blast, a few steps away, Sgt. Muhammed Abdullah, 28,glared at the American soldier seated inside the armored bulldozer, unharmed. Not even his window was cracked.
To Abdullah's left, the windshield of a tan Iraqi army truck was shattered. Abdullah, his forehead bloodied from flying shrapnel, was angry. "Usually the Americans are never injured," he said. "It's the Iraqis who get hurt."
. . .
The Iraqis' approach to bomb-clearing is nothing like the Americans.' "These guys are crazy. They just get an IED and snip the wick," said Capt. Ben Michaels, a burly Texan, referring to an improvised explosive device. "We collect the bombs and put them together and detonate it. These guys just blow them on the spot."
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/19/2008 12:02 Comments ||
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AKI) - A Shia cleric was killed by unidentified gunmen in Baghdad on Monday, while several others were injured in a wave of bomb attacks that swept the Iraqi capital.
Sheikh Jaber Fares Dhaher died after insurgents attacked his car in the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Zafaraniyah, Interior Ministry sources said. His wife and daughter were also wounded in the attack.
A total of 17 were injured in bomb attacks targeting US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad, sources told the news agency Voices of Iraq.
Five people, including two policemen, were wounded by an improvised explosive device the Karrada district in the third bomb attack in the city in the past 24 hours.
Nine Iraqis, including three policemen, were injured by a mine targeting a military patrol in the western district of Yarmuk, while a similar attack in the Mansur neighbourhood injured five people, including three policemen.
On Sunday night, a suicide bomber killed 15 people including at least six US-backed Sunni Arab fighters, near a crowded outdoor market in east Baghdad.
Another 30 people were wounded in the attack near the historic Abu Hanifa Mosque in the Sunni district of Adhamiya and women and children were among the dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Masked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying election workers in southern Iraq on Monday, killing two of them including an official known for resisting interference by Shiite religious extremists, authorities said. The attack on the bus occurred when gunmen opened fire as their car passed it in the Abu al-Khasib area south of Basra, police and election officials said. A third election employee was wounded.
The dead included the head of a local government committee preparing for provincial elections, Maath Wahab, and his deputy, Jassim Mohammed, according to Hazim al-Rubaie, director of Basra electoral committee.
No group claimed responsibility and no arrests have been made. But local officials said Wahab was known for resisting interference in the electoral process by Shiite religious extremists. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their own safety.
Provincial elections are expected late this year and will likely redistribute power among Iraq's political and ethnic groups. No date has been set because legislation has been stalled in the national parliament, but preparations have begun nationwide. Control of polling places would enable parties to manipulate the results. Voters will select members of the provincial councils in Iraq's 18 provinces. Under the 2005 constitution, those councils will wield considerable power over security and resources, including Basra's vast oil wealth.
Basra had been under the control of rival Shiite militias until Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched a military operations last March that wrested control from the gunmen.
(AKI) - At least 28 people have been killed in fresh conflict between government forces and militants from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday. Brig. Gen. Hilario Atendido, commander of Task Force Tabak, told the news channel, GMA, that most of the casualties were from the towns of Lanao del Norte province. Three soldiers were among the dead, while two others were also wounded.
Troops were sent to fight the rebels as President Gloria Arroyo vowed to defeat them in a national address.
The violence came after the Supreme Court blocked a territorial deal to expand a Muslim autonomous zone in Mindanao.
Governor Miguel Rene Dominguez from Sarangani province said earlier two civilians were killed when MILF forces attacked the town of Maasim before dawn on Monday. "They were killed when they (rebels) were withdrawing. They used them as human shields," Atendido said. "The rebels killed them on their way out. They were killed like chickens."
Atendido said the military in the province will remain vigilant for more violence. "We are still on alert for any possible return of the MILF...They withdrew (from Kolambugan) as the troops were entering the town."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Rival Lebanese factions have exchanged gunfire after two bombs were thrown in a restive neighborhood of the northern port city of Tripoli.
According to eyewitnesses, the Lebanese army intervened to calm the situation 10 minutes after violence broke out between the two opposing sides. "The army fired at the place from where the bomb was thrown, in a sector separating Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen," an unnamed army spokesman told AFP.
There were no reports of any casualties.
The latest clashes follow a decision by the country's Supreme Defense Council to step up security measures across the country after last week's deadly bus blast in Tripoli that killed 18 people and left several others injured. During the past four months, the city has been the scene of deadly clashes between opposition supporters and those loyal to the Western-backed March 14 coalition.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2008 00:00 ||
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Tucked away at the end of a piece on Ayman al-Zawahiri's latest speech, his first in English, is this in Australia's Herald Sun.
In southern Afghanistan, eight civilians being held in a compound by the Taliban were killed in an air strike by US-led troops that also killed 25 rebel fighters.
Militants ambushed coalition troops in Uruzgan province on Sunday and then fled to a compound where they held "hostage" 11 civilians, including children. The coalition said it did not know civilians were inside. "An anonymous eyewitness told coalition forces the civilians tried to escape, but the militants beat them and refused to let them leave," it said.
#1
The implication being that we should quit fighting the Taliban because civilians my be killed in the process.
That's just a shitty consequence of any human endeavor I'm afraid.
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.
Taliban fighters attacked a US military base in eastern Afghanistan early Tuesday and at least 13 were killed, some in their own suicide blasts, Afghan officials said. The attack on Camp Salerno, 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Pakistan, came as NATO's International Security Assistance Force was involved in heavy fighting near Kabul after French troops were ambushed Monday. 
(AKI) - A suicide car bomb exploded at a United States military base in Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least nine civilians and injuring 13 others amid independence day celebrations.
Three men were found guilty of terrorism offences on Monday, including a teenager believed by prosecutors to be the youngest Briton to be convicted of an offence under the Terrorism Act. Hammaad Munshi, 18, Aabid Hussain Khan, 23, and Sultan Muhammad, 23, were found in possession of "huge volumes" of terrorism material, including Al Qaeda documents and information on poisons and firearms, police said. Detectives said the men were "facilitators" who provided exclusive, up to date information on terrorist techniques, training, weapons and explosives. "These are not the actions of curious individuals, or even those who are sympathetic to terrorist objectives," said Detective Chief Superintendent John Parkinson, head of the Leeds Counter Terrorism Unit.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- "There are the bloodstains on the wall, and here it is dried on the floor," says Abu Muhanad as he walks through a torture chamber in a Baghdad mosque where more than two dozen bodies have been found. Chunks of hair waft lazily across the floor in the hot Baghdad breeze.
The Sunni president of Diyala University, Nazar al-Khafaji, was taken from his home handcuffed, his head covered by a hood, according to his nephew. Troops also seized three computers and several books, said the nephew, Ismail Ibrahim Sabi, who was in his uncle's house at the time and works for him as a driver.
AKI) - A Shia cleric was killed by unidentified gunmen in Baghdad on Monday, while several others were injured in a wave of bomb attacks that swept the Iraqi capital.
