Eleven Afghan civilians and three NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan Tuesday as the defense minister acknowledged that 2008 was the bloodiest year since U.S.-led invasion.
Eleven people, including two children aged about 10, were killed when a bomb apparently intended for Afghan or international security forces blew up a bus in the southern province of Uruzgan, police said. Another six people were wounded when the blast hit the small bus as it was taking villagers to a district centre, said senior provincial police officer Mohammad Gulab.
Provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat blamed the attack on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a phrase used to refer to insurgents from the Taliban, an Islamic group that was in government between 1996 and 2001. A spokesman for the Taliban denied his group's involvement.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 00:00 ||
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While the merchant fleets are waiting for EU and NATO escorts, the Somali pirates are staying busy, as set out in Pirates seize ship:
A maritime official says armed pirates have hijacked a bulk carrier with 21 crew members in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia.
Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau says the ship was sailing from the Middle East to Asia when it was seized Wednesday. The ship flies a Panamanian flag but is operated in the Philippines. This problem could be easily solved by airborne bombing and/or strafing of the local fleet and port facilities near the piracy incidents. No nation building. Just destroy the base. Somalia is a non-country, so who would officially object? However, who should do it? It seems to me that since the Big Bad US is so hated, someone else should step up to the plate. Let us let the others chew on this one for a while. It would be good for them to take responsibility. Piracy affects everyone, including the Egyptians, who will get no Suez Canal revenues if nobody goes there. We could solve the problem in a day or two on station, but it is time for someone else to step up to the plate and act.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/15/2008 17:24 ||
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#1
I say it again, "Q" ships.
Posted by: Total War ||
10/15/2008 17:35 Comments ||
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#2
Govt allows Indian Navy to patrol Somali waters
The Indian government has finally allowed the Indian Navy to patrol Somali waters to ensure that the safety of Indian sailors is not compromised.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the government said, "Neighbouring powers and international agencies are working with India to free the sailors."
On Tuesday, Somali pirates set an ultimatum of 48 hours for paying ransom for the release of the 18 Indian sailors onboard the hijacked MT Stolt Valor.
The angry families have been demanding proactive action from the government and want the Navy to patrol the Somalian gulf in order to escort the ship back and avoid clashes with the pirates, as it could prove counter productive.
Seema Goyal, wife of captain of the ship Prabhat Goyal said she do not know which door to knock and collect the money.
"Assurances don't work. This is the time when I want help from any quarter and solve the matter," she added.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/15/2008 17:47 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) Two days after they killed one of the hijackers in a gun battle, Somali security forces freed a Panamanian ship from pirates on Tuesday, officials said. "Strike yer colors, ye scurvy dogs, or I'll send yez to the bottom!"
"Ummm... Cap'n? That's my ship..."
"Shuddup."
The Wail was seized by heavily armed Somali gunmen on Thursday as it carried cement to Bosasso from Oman. "Bring up them chests, boys! Let's see what kinda loot... Oh. Cement."
There are thought to be nine Syrian and two Somali crew members onboard. "Put a shot across her bows, Mr. Muslim!"
"Aye aye, Cap'n!"
[KABOOM!]
"Aaaaiiieee!"
"A little higher next time, Mr. Muslim!"
"We have succeeded in saving the Panama-flagged ship and its crew," Ali Abdi Aware, state minister for the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region, told Reuters. "Most of them, anyway."
"The pirates have surrendered and the ship is in our hands now." Puntland's fisheries minister, Ahmed Said Ow Nur, said 10 hijackers were arrested and two soldiers wounded in the raid. "Clap 'em in irons, Mr. Muslim!"
"Aye aye, Cap'n!"
"You men! How badly are you wounded?"
"Ow!"
"Ouch!"
"Ship's doctor! A bandaid and an aspirin for each of these men!"
"Aye aye, Cap'n!"
"The ship is now sailing towards Bosasso," he told Reuters. "Helmsman, lay a course for Bosasso! And make it quick!"
Another senior Puntland government official said the Wail had been slightly damaged during an earlier shoot-out on Sunday in which one pirate and one Somali soldier were killed. Sources say Puntland security forces also seized two of the speedboats used by the gang during that operation, and had been surrounding the Panamanian-flagged vessel since then. "Mr. Muslim!"
"Sir!"
"Drop a few rounds of shot into their speedboats. See how they..."
[DROP!]
[CRASH!]
[GURGLE!]
[SINK!]
"We give up!"
"Yeah! We quit!"
"... like it."
Somali pirates have hijacked more than 30 ships so far this year and received ransoms totaling $18-30 million, making the waters off the Horn of Africa nation the world's most dangerous. In the highest profile case for years, ransom talks are continuing after they seized a Ukrainian vessel, the MV Faina, which was loaded with 33 T-72 tanks and other weaponry.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Absolutely first-rate inlines there, Fred. You made my day. Now if the US would only bomb the he$$ out of the rest of the pirates, it might actually put a stop to some of this.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/15/2008 12:23 Comments ||
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Four suspected Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji) militants have been arrested by the Bangladesh's elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion in southwestern Khulna, officials said here on Wednesday. RAB officials said the Huji militants were arrested following a tip off and during interrogations they confessed to have hatched a plot to get free their detained top leader Mufti Abdul Hannan from jail.
Officials said the police had submitted a charge sheet in a Dhaka court accusing 21 Huji militants, including its top leader Hannan and former minister Abdus Salam Pintu of detained ex-premier Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), of carrying out a deadly grenade attack on a rally. Twenty four people were killed in the attack on the rally of ex-premier Sheikh Hasina's Awami League. Several others were wounded but Hasina narrowly escaped the attack.
Nicky Reilly, 22, who uses the adopted the Islamic name Mohamed Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed-Alim, pleaded guilty to launching the failed attack in Exeter on May 22. The Old Bailey heard that Reilly considered attacking a naval dockyard and a police station but instead deliberately chose to target civilians at the Giraffe restaurant in the Princesshay shopping centre.
Reilly researched how to make a bomb, acquired the components and made three devices using caustic soda, paraffin and aluminium foil, along with nails, which he had put in glass soft drink bottles. But the planned attack failed when he got locked in a toilet cubicle as he attempted to assemble one of the soft drink bottle bombs, the court heard. He was arrested when he staggered outside after suffering serious facial injuries when one of his devices exploded.
Appearing in court by video link, Reilly, of King Street, Plymouth, pleaded guilty to attempted murder and engaging in preparation for terrorism. His mother Kim said that he suffered from Asperger's syndrome and had clearly been "brainwashed". Counter terrorist police are still hunting for two men believed to have encouraged him via an extremist website.
Outlining the case, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith told the court that an examination of Reilly's computer showed that he had began to plan the attack early this year, keeping in regular touch with two as-yet unidentified men on a website called Chechen233. He researched how to buy the materials for a suicide vest before deciding to use bottle bombs packed with hundreds of nails for the planned attack.
"There was some debate, which is revealed by comments on the computer, about what sort of person should be targeted in due course, whether public servants such as police officers or other public servants or ordinary citizens," the judge said. "In the end the decision was made to target ordinary citizens in a restaurant.
"He bought more than necessary equipment over those months to construct two types of improvised devices, one using caustic soda and the other kerosene. He appears to have tried to increase the potential for injury and death both to himself and others by putting chemicals in glass bottles and filling those bottles with a total of around 500 nails."
The court heard that Reilly boarded a double-decker Stagecoach bus at Bretonside bus station in his home town of Plymouth at 10.20 on May 22, carrying six bottles, three containing caustic soda, three kerosene and another chemical contained in drain cleaner. Arriving in Exeter shortly after midday, he headed for the toilets of the Giraffe restaurant at the Princesshay shopping centre and attempted to finish assembling the device in a toilet cubicle. But as one started to partially explode he struggled to open the cubicle lock and the device went off, leaving him with facial injuries. He was arrested as he staggered outside .
When police searched the flat he shared with his mother and 10-year-old brother, they found a typed note which suggested he had planned a suicide attack. His mother said: "He would have had to have instructions or guidance from someone ... Somebody has brainwashed him, he has done the work and they are walking free."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 13:03 Comments ||
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#4
I dunno, if he was willing to blow himself to get at a random pakistanese gal with mustaches, what wouldn't he do for a stripper with a boobs job? I think that's a possiblity that should be explored.
#6
The link to the article about him being a good boy aside from his psychotic, murderous tendencies is a hoot. Especially like this line:
"By that point Islam was taking over his life. There was no room for girls."
Good news for the ladies; not so much for the goats.
Posted by: regular joe ||
10/15/2008 17:49 Comments ||
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#7
nice job, Nicky. Start the bomb's action and find you've locked yourself in a small toilet cubicle. What oh what should you do? I know, look at the bomb! Hold it up by your face! Genius!
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/15/2008 18:07 Comments ||
Top||
#8
"Nicky Reilly, 22, who uses the adopted the Islamic name Mohamed Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed-Alim"
That alone is enough to question his sanity.
Stop calling me "Bert" -- I go by "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" now!
Security forces targeted suspected Taliban hideouts in various areas of Bajaur Agency on Tuesday, killing 14 Taliban and wounding several others. The security forces used jet aircraft, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery to destroy Taliban hideouts in Rashkai, Tang Khatta, Tangi, Chinar and Kotki areas of the agency.
Sources said the forces bombed suspected Taliban hideouts twice in Charmang, Chinar and Kotki. AFP reported that at least 28 Taliban and a tribesman were killed in the latest clashes.
Security officials told AFP jets and helicopters killed 16 Taliban in Bajaur, while artillery and mortars overnight killed 10 others. The fighting in Bajaur is some of the heaviest since the war on terror started in 2001.
Meanwhile, fighting between Taliban and the Charmang tribal lashkar continued and both sides used heavy artillery. The lashkar and Taliban took positions against each other in Charmang. The lashkar set a number of Taliban houses on fire. AFP said two Taliban and a tribesman were killed. The lashkar had been formed last week to take action against Taliban hiding in the area.
Separately, the political administration continued its crackdown on Taliban and Afghan refugees, arresting 16 people including some refugees. Online reported the Bajaur political administration arrested 100 people of the Mamoond tribe for not taking action against Taliban.
Meanwhile, security forces bombed Bandi, Alam Gunj and Gash Kor areas in Khwazakhela tehsil of Swat for the third consecutive day, killing two civilians including a woman. A curfew is still enforced in the area.
The beheaded body of a Frontier Corps personnel was found in Sirchinai area of Kabal tehsil. The deceased was identified as Raj Wali. He had been abducted by Taliban three days ago. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan accepted responsibility for his murder.
NNI reported that at least three people were killed while three others were injured when unidentified armed men opened firing on a van in Sanbaga area of Orakzai Agency. The van was going from Daburi to Ghiljo when it came under attack. The driver of the van was amongst those killed. The injured included one woman and an elder.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
are they dreading the brutal afghan winter that bad?
Posted by: chris ||
10/15/2008 9:11 Comments ||
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Charsadda police on Tuesday released a US citizen of Pakistani origin who had been arrested on Monday, police said.
Charsadda District Police Officer Waqif Khan told Daily Times that the arrested man had been identified as Jawad Ali. He was released after he was found innocent and joined his family in Peshawar. "He was a Peshawari American," the police official said.
Peshawari American?? Okay, this hyphenation nonsense has gone too far ...
The police official said his name was Jodi Cannan according to the documents in his possession, but he told police his name was Jawad Ali. He said he was going to Mohmand Agency to meet a friend, Habibullah. Police said he did not have any contact information for Habibullah.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Just checking out the school system I'll bet...
Frontier Corps (FC) personnel arrested 180 suspected Afghan nationals from the Chaman, Qila Abdullah and Chaghi areas of Balochistan on Tuesday.
Maps of various cities and seminaries of Balochistan were reportedly recovered from the arrested men. FC officials said that 45 Afghan national had been arrested from Chaman and 100 from Qila Abdullah for entering into Pakistan illegally without any travel documents. They said that 65 of the arrested were Afghan Pashtuns, while the remaining were Tajik and Uzbek Afghans. They said that 23 Afghan nationals had been arrested from Chaghi and Dalbandeen area. FC officials said that patrolling in the border areas had been enhanced and FC posts established every three kilometres. Shoot-at-sight orders have also been given for anyone crossing the border into Pakistan without authorisation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 00:00 ||
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Five mortars fired from across the Afghan border landed in the Bangi Dar area of the North Waziristan Agency on Tuesday. No damage was reported in the area, which is 30 kilometres northeast of Miranshah. Separately, locals said American spy planes had flown over the Ghulam Khan border area of the agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 00:00 ||
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(APP): A blast has been reported from the Indian city of Kanpur on Tuesday evening, when a bomb went off in the Bajaria area of Colonelganj police station. The device was reportedly placed on a rented bicycle, an Indian TV (Zee News) reported. The blast took off at around 7 pm. Reports suggest six people were injured, including a woman and two children.
The area, situated in the centre of the city, is highly crowded and minority dominated. Several cracker manufacturing units are located here. It is a densely populated area, packed with slums in narrow lanes.
The nature of the explosive is not confirmed, but is suspected to be of crude variant. The blast was a low-intensity one.
The entire city of Kanpur has been put on high-alert, with the site being cordoned-off.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 00:00 ||
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The U.S. military says the No. 2 leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been killed during an operation in the northern city of Mosul.
The military has identified the insurgent leader as a Moroccan known as Abu Qaswarah or Abu Sara. Wednesday's statement says he became the senior al-Qaeda in Iraq emir of northern Iraq in June 2007 and had ties to senior al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It also says "he was al-Qaeda in Iraq's second-in-command" behind Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who also is known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.
#4
personally i think all the al-Qaeda leaders are number 2
/channeling first grade humor
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
10/15/2008 12:35 Comments ||
Top||
#5
#3 They run outta No. 3's? Posted by: tu3031
Just working up the ladder, tu. Guess we've cleared the #3 step, and are now working on #2. Since #1 is a fiction of the Arab imagination, getting all the #2s would do wonders for the health and well-being of Mosul.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/15/2008 12:38 Comments ||
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#6
Lloyds of London refuses to write policies for any AQ no 2's - actuaries have deemed them an extremely poor risk.
#8
One almost feels sorry for the poor men. No sooner do they get the keys to the executive washroom and the corner office then they are killed -- no chance to even unlock the door and wash their hands first, let alone get trained to do the job properly. Besides, all the ambitious jihadis have taken themselves off to Pakistan, from whence they can throw themselves against Coalition guns.
Cupcakes!! Querent, I've been dying for cupcakes. The trailing daughters no longer celebrate birthdays at school. :-(
Israeli police arrested an Arab man who drove his car on a holy Jewish holiday, an incident which sparked five days of clashes between Jews and Arabs in the northern town of Acre, police said on Tuesday. Drove his car on Yom Kippur, did he? Oh, well. Let him go. At least he didn't draw any cartoons.
Israeli media reported that Tawfik Jamal was arrested on Monday for speeding, endangering life, and for "harming religious sensitivities" on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when virtually all of Israel observes a religious ban on driving and observant Jews fast and pray. "Yo, Zionist oppressors! [THROB!] Check out this [THROB!] sound system! [THROB!]"
Arab lawmakers said the arrest was politically motivated and the charges trumped up. They demanded Jamal's immediate release. "I am sure some Jews also drove on Yom Kippur. Will the police arrest them?" asked Arab legislator Abbas Zkoor of Acre.
"It is the first time anyone is arrested for harming religious sensitivities," Arab-Israeli MP Ahmad Tibi said, urging police to immediately release Jamal, who was detained on Monday. "Police caved in to pressure from the fascist right which demanded his arrest, demonstrating it is a Jewish, racist and idiotic police," Tibi told AFP. "I wonder if the Israeli government will in future arrest Jews who eat or drink in mixed cities during Ramadan," he said in reference to the holiest month in Islam when most Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.
Jamal appeared on Sunday before parliament's Interior Committee and apologized, saying he had "just wanted to get home".
"If what I did caused this, I am ready to sacrifice my neck right here on this table... just to return peace and quiet back to the city of Acre, to bring coexistence back to its place," he said.
At least three people were injured during the clashes that broke out when Jamal drove through a Jewish neighborhood. A group of Jewish youths assaulted him, accusing him of deliberately making noise and disrupting the sanctity of Yom Kippur. Hundreds of rioters then took to the streets, damaging around 100 cars and 40 shops, according to police. On the ensuing four nights, Jewish and Arab rioters clashed with each other as Jews called for "death to Arabs" and Arabs chanted "Holy Shit! Allahu Akbar."
Arabs with Israeli citizenship, the descendants of those who remained in the Jewish state after the 1948 war that followed its creation, make up around 20 percent of the Israeli population.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"I am sure some Jews also drove on Yom Kippur. Will the police arrest them?"
Yeah, if they are @-holes about it by driving by a synagogue and blaring their horns and radios. It's happened before, only they usually just throw rocks.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers on Tuesday shot dead a Palestinian youth who tried to throw a fire bomb near the West Bank settlement of Beit El.
Troops found next to the youth's body a cache of ten other fire bombs, which he apparently planned on hurling at the settlement. According to the IDF, two other Palestinians fled the scene.
An IDF spokeswoman said that in light of a number of recent attacks in and around on the settlement an army squad had set up an ambush after dark on Tuesday, which subsequently caught the Palestinian.
Earlier Tuesday, IDF engineers blew up a tunnel dug by Palestinians in central Hebron. The tunnel, which was some 100 meters long, was discovered by Palestinian police in the West Bank city during the Jewish Holiday of Sukkot.
After the Palestinians police had informed the Civil Administration of their discovery, the IDF examined the tunnel. The army is still investigating whether it was meant to facilitate a terror attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 00:00 ||
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Syria recognized Lebanon's sovereignty for the first time on Tuesday, with President Bashar Assad issuing a decree paving the way for the opening of full diplomatic ties with Lebanon, following six decades of independence, the official SANA news agency said on Tuesday. The decree provides for "the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Syrian Arab Republic and the Lebanese republic and the creation of a diplomatic mission at ambassador level in the Lebanese capital Beirut," it said.
Syria and Lebanon announced on August 13 their intention to open diplomatic ties for the first time since independence some 60 years ago, following up on a pledge made by Assad and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in Paris in July. Assad said last month he expected full diplomatic relations between Damascus and Beirut by the end of this year.
On Monday, U.S. President George W. Bush had warned Syria that it must respect Lebanon's sovereignty and urged Damascus to open full diplomatic ties with Beirut. His comments came as Washington closely watched Syrian troop movements near the border with Lebanon, which have raised concerns among anti-Damascus figures in Lebanon.
Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman issued a statement on Saturday, after contacts with Assad, accepting that the troop movements were aimed at tackling smuggling as stated by Damascus.
In September, the Lebanese army revealed the deployment of 10,000 Syrian special forces in the Abbudiya region along the border between Lebanon and Syria. The move came a month after a Damascus summit between Assad and Suleiman at which it was agreed the neighbors would take formal steps to demarcate their borders.
In addition to trying to improve relations with Lebanon, Assad has also recently sought indirect peace talks with Israel, mediated by Turkey, and says he wants direct talks next year. The West is slowly changing its policy of the past three years of isolating Syria and has instead tried to engage it more in Middle East issues.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
This is a HUGE step for Syria. They have always before declared that Lebanon was merely a Syrian province, and had no right to independence. This dates back to the early partitioning of the Ottoman empire by France and Britain in 1920, when both Syria and Lebanon were governed by the French as a single unit. This would be like China accepting an independent Taiwan.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/15/2008 12:43 Comments ||
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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.
(SomaliNet) Two days after they killed one of the hijackers in a gun battle, Somali security forces freed a Panamanian ship from pirates on Tuesday, officials said. 
Nicky Reilly, 22, who uses the adopted the Islamic name Mohamed Abdulaziz Rashid Saeed-Alim, pleaded guilty to launching the failed attack in Exeter on May 22. The Old Bailey heard that Reilly considered attacking a naval dockyard and a police station but instead deliberately chose to target civilians at the Giraffe restaurant in the Princesshay shopping centre.
The U.S. military says the No. 2 leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq has been killed during an operation in the northern city of Mosul.
Israeli police arrested an Arab man who drove his car on a holy Jewish holiday, an incident which sparked five days of clashes between Jews and Arabs in the northern town of Acre, police said on Tuesday. 
Syria recognized Lebanon's sovereignty for the first time on Tuesday, with President Bashar Assad issuing a decree paving the way for the opening of full diplomatic ties with Lebanon, following six decades of independence, the official SANA news agency said on Tuesday. The decree provides for "the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Syrian Arab Republic and the Lebanese republic and the creation of a diplomatic mission at ambassador level in the Lebanese capital Beirut," it said. 
