AUSTRALIAN special forces troops have killed a Taliban leader believed to have orchestrated the rocket attack that killed an Australian soldier in Afghanistan last weekend.
Private Gregory Sher, whose funeral will be held in Melbourne today, died when a rocket struck the remote patrol base in the Baluchi Valley of Afghanistan's restive Oruzgan Province where he and other special forces soldiers were harbouring.
Defence head Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, on a visit to troops in Afghanistan, said the special forces troops had just finished a successful operation that resulted in the death of a number of Taliban insurgents and the capture of two.
Unfortunately it also resulted in the death of Private Sher, the eighth Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan. As a member of the part-time 1 Commando Regiment, he was also the first reservist to die in Afghanistan.
In an impassioned speech, Air Chief Marshal Houston told special forces soldiers gathered in the dining area at their base in Tarin Kowt: "It is quite clear you made them pay for the death of a comrade.''
He praised them for continuing the operation in a completely professional manner, showing great distinction, courage and teamwork, despite this tragedy. "The results they achieved were nothing short of spectacular,'' he said later.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said it had been confirmed that one of those killed in the operation was a prominent and long-hunted Taliban leader from the Baluchi region. "They actually got the leader who we think orchestrated all of this,'' he said. "They went into an area this guy was the leader. They got him.''
Australian special forces have killed or captured more than a dozen Taliban leaders in the province in the past six months.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said the Australian special forces team were having a significant impact on the province. "Last year the violent incidents went up right acoss Afghanistan. The only province where there was a reduction in violent incidents was in Oruzgan. We were against the trend,'' he said.
Commander of Australian forces in the Middle East Major General Mike Hindmarsh said the special operations task group had been operating in Oruzgan since 2005, disrupting Taliban operations by targeting the leaders and bomb makers. He said most of the top leaders had now fled to Pakistan.
"They know it is just too dangerous to operate in that part of the world,'' he said. "Our aim is to keep whacking them and disabuse them of the notion that they can exist there at all.''
Three NATO soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan Friday while a suicide bomb blast ripped through a fruit market in a small town, killing five civilians and a police commander, authorities said. The multinational NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not say how the soldiers were killed or give their identities.
In another attack against foreign soldiers, a remote-controlled bomb struck convoys in Khost Province on Friday, wounding two soldiers in a US-led coalition that works alongside ISAF, a military official said.
Meanwhile, in the southwestern town of Zaranj near the border with Iran, a suicide attacker "detonated himself near our operations deputy who was buying things from a shop," Nimroz Province police chief Abdel-Jabar Pordili told AFP. The blast killed five civilians as well as the deputy provincial police operations chief, said the provincial governor, Ghulam Dastagir Azad. Six other people, including a policeman and two children, were wounded, he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast but it was similar to scores of others carried out by the Taliban.
The Taliban did however claim an attack Thursday in Kandahar Province that the US military said killed two US soldiers. Afghan officials said two civilians also died and more than a dozen were wounded.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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Ugandan rebels have killed 38 south Sudanese villagers since Christmas in the latest of a wave of attacks that have left hundreds of people dead in the region, a Sudanese official said on Thursday.
Jemma Nunu Kumba, governor of south Sudan's Western Equatoria state, said thousands of civilians had fled the area fearing more attacks by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) fighters. The guerrillas returned to their murderous ways after a brief lull that ended when regional militaries launched an offensive against their Congolese hideouts in mid-December.
"They have caused unprecedented havoc, killing almost 40 people between Decemebr 24 and January 1," Kumba told Reuters. "We are now a target area. This is more than hunger. This is revenge."
The LRA's elusive commander Joseph Kony and two of his top deputies are wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for their role in one of Africa's longest-running wars.
Some 2 million civilians were displaced in northern Uganda and the conflict has also destabilised neighbouring parts of volatile northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and oil-producing southern Sudan.
LRA fighters killed 20 people on Friday in a raid on a park ranger station in the Congolese town of Negero, local officials said, while UN officials say LRA fighters killed nearly 200 people during three days of raids in DRC in late December.
Catholic charity Caritas said it believed more than 400 Congolese died in a series of Christmas week massacres.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government has cut by 20 per cent the non-developmental expenditure of all ministries to meet defence needs amidst tensions with India after the Mumbai terror attacks.
The finance department had issued an official communication to federal government departments to scrap non-developmental expenditure with "immediate effect", official sources were quoted as saying by The News daily.
Finance ministry officials, speaking to the newspaper on condition of anonymity, cited two reasons for slashing non-development expenses defence requirements and the deteriorating financial position of Pakistan.
Development expenditure had also been whittled down before the appointment of the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance, Shaukat Tarin, who played a key role in obtaining an IMF bailout package for Pakistan.
"We have already earmarked enough funds for defence and would definitely provide more, if required, but this measure (of) bringing down allocations by 20 per cent is to arrest expenditures," he argued.
Tarin said the reduction was not aimed at generating money exclusively for defence purposes but to avoid wastage of available funds. The Pakistan-India tensions and the situation along the border had nothing to do with the recent cut in expenses, he insisted.
"We have also addressed to the defence ministry the same letter for the 20 percent cut made on other ministries, departments and state-run organisations," Tarin said.
The cash-starved country took the latest step to ensure the availability of funds for the armed forces in case of an emergency.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/10/2009 07:42 ||
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#1
Not to worry.. Joe Biden is bringing 15 Billion dollars soon
Posted by: john frum ||
01/10/2009 7:43 Comments ||
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#2
Priorities made perfectly clear.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
01/10/2009 8:43 Comments ||
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#3
Erase that factory to make the new Chinese fighter/bomber and they have %20.
Pakistan's main spy agency has given India information about the Mumbai terror attacks, the prime minister said yesterday, while denying media speculation of a rift between him and the president.
The comments came as US Vice President-elect Joe Biden arrived in Pakistan for talks with the country's top military and political leaders. The US Embassy confirmed the visit but gave few details.
The US has an interest in the stability of Pakistan's civilian government which is considered weak because of its support of the American-led war on terror. There are multiple centers of power within the government, and the military and the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency are believed to have significant independence.
The November attacks in Mumbai that killed 164 people underscored the threat terrorism poses to the whole of South Asia. New Delhi says it has passed on evidence to Islamabad that proves Pakistani militants were behind the slaughter.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters the ISI "had given feedback and information sharing that has been passed on to India" after studying that evidence. He gave no more details.
On Wednesday, Gilani fired the national security adviser hours after the official told reporters the sole surviving Mumbai attacker was a Pakistani citizen something that Islamabad had previously been unwilling to acknowledge.
Local media reported President Asif Ali Zardari was not informed of the decision, intensifying earlier media speculation of a split between the country's top two leaders.
Analysts say there is confusion at times over who is in charge in Pakistan.
Upon taking office Zardari promised to support reducing the presidency's powers, but there has been little visible progress on that front. Zardari, who also heads the ruling Pakistan People's Party, is believed to be stronger than Gilani, even though the prime minister is technically the chief executive of the government.
Both officials have sought to downplay reports they are feuding.
"There is no misunderstanding," Gilani insisted to reporters Friday, while denying reports that Zardari was displeased with the decision to sack the adviser, Mahmood Ali Durrani.
A Zardari spokesman said Thursday that the two were "on the same page" and it was Gilani's prerogative to fire Durrani.
The Mumbai attackers are suspected to be members of Lashkar-e-Taiba a militant group created by Pakistani intelligence agencies in the 1980s to fight Indian rule in Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed by both countries and the trigger for two of their three wars.
Some analysts say the group maintains ties to Pakistani intelligence and that the government cannot act too aggressively against it as a result.
In recent weeks, several US envoys have visited India and Pakistan to defuse tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours and press Islamabad to take action against extremists on its soil.
Biden is travelling to Pakistan in his capacity as a US senator. He is being accompanied by US Sen. Lindsey Graham. Biden takes office as vice president on Jan. 20, but has not yet resigned his Senate seat.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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Four small bombs exploded outside a theatre and near a major government building in an eastern Pakistan city late last night, but there were no casualties, police said.
The explosions spurred panic in Lahore, a cultural hub that has largely escaped the scores of suicide and other bomb attacks that have bedevilled Pakistan in the past two years. The blasts occurred near the building housing the Punjab province assembly and the Al-Falah Theatre.
"These were four, locally made, low-intensity timed devices," senior police official Haider Ashraf said. "Two of them had been planted in the power plant of the theatre. Another two exploded at the main gate."
He said no one was hurt or wounded.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Looks like Pakistan needs to ARCLIGHT itself.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/10/2009 0:10 Comments ||
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Unidentified gunmen shot dead two government employees in North Waziristan Agency late on Thursday, an official said. The ambush took place in Asadkhel village, around 35 kilometres south of agency headquarters Miranshah. Amanullah Jan, a junior administrator in Razmak town, and his security guard were killed, while Jan's deputy and another guard were injured after gunmen hiding on a roadside shot at their car, a local official told AFP. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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Five people were killed and 14 others sustained injuries in clashes on Friday that erupted after Shia protesters demonstrated against the imposition of curfew in Hangu during Ashura, sources said. Fearing sectarian clashes, the district administration had imposed curfew in the city on Thursday, barring Shia mourners from taking out Ashura processions. The protesters opened fire on Friday when the security forces tried to stop them from entering the city. The security forces retaliated. Casualties in the crossfire could not be confirmed. Later, the clashes spread to other parts of the city and led to the killing of five people and injuries to 14, including a security officer.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Ramparts.jpg is what outa be on the RBee Mug. Also it would be nice on the non-existent RBeeee Hoodee.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Omar on Friday told reporters that the Taliban had freed abducted members of a jirga of Bajaur Agency's Mandal tribe. Talking over telephone, Omar said the jirga members had been released unconditionally in Ambar tehsil of Bajaur. The political administration has not confirmed the release of the 13-member jirga so far. Salarzai Tehsildar Adalat Khan told Daily Times that the political administration had no clue about the jirga members' whereabouts. Omar also said the TTP stood by its decision of not fighting security forces in Bajaur. He said the decision was made to improve law and order in the agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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A fierce gunbattle between government forces and militants holed up in icy Himalayan caves for nine days in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) has ended after about a dozen militants escaped, the army said on Friday.
They said soldiers had begun mop up operations in the rugged mountains of Poonch near the Line of Control. The gunbattle, the longest in the recent years in the disputed region, began on December 31 after a security patrol was fired upon. "The operations concluded in the afternoon of January 8," army spokesman Colonel DK Kachari said in a statement. "Possibility of terrorists having slipped out taking advantage of the rugged terrain and prevailing climatic conditions cannot be ruled out." The army had said three soldiers and four militants were killed in the clash. Overall violence has fallen significantly across Kashmir since India and Pakistan began peace talks in 2004. But New Delhi paused that dialogue after the Mumbai terror attacks in November, which it blames on Pakistan-based terrorists.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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Iraqi authorities are holding a suspect in the October 2000 hijacking of a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from Jeddah to London, the interior ministry said on Saturday.
Former Saudi military officer Ayesh Ali Hussein al-Harbi was arrested in Iraq last month, a ministry statement, said without specifying where or how. Two hijackers forced the Saudi Boeing 777 carrying more than 100 passengers and crew to fly to Baghdad before surrendering peacefully. The interior ministry did not specify whether Harbi was suspected of being one of the hijackers or of playing some other role in the plot. "During the investigation it was discovered that he entered Iraq in 2000 after his involvement in the hijacking of a Saudi plane, which was flying from Jeddah airport to Britain before landing at Baghdad airport," its statement said. The ministry said Harbi was also suspected of belonging to a three-member gang that carried out a string of murders of Iraqis, including police and military officials. It did not say whether he would face prosecution in Iraq or be extradited to Saudi Arabia.
Aswat al-Iraq: An Iraqi force arrested a man wanted by security authorities in central Kut city on Friday, a security source in Wassit province said.
"A force from the Iraqi interior ministry's Quick Response Department conducted a security operation on Friday (Jan. 9) in the area of al-Aswaq (markets) in central Kut, resulting in the capture of a wanted man," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
"The detainee is charged with involvement in armed operations against Iraqi security forces during confrontations that erupted in the city between gunmen and Iraqi security forces in March 2008," the source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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The IDF insists that the great majority of Gazan casualties have been "gunmen." The Palestinians say that at least half are "civilians." The consistent discrepancy between the reports from the two sides could stem from a disagreement over the definition of an active combatant.
On Thursday evening, the IDF estimated the death toll in Gaza had passed 700, of whom three quarters were said to have been combatants, 290 of them identified as known Hamas terrorists. Since Operation Cast Lead began, Israel has reiterated that it is not targeting civilians, only Hamas members.
Palestinian officials put the death toll at an estimated 750 on Thursday night. Mutasem Awad, coordinator for the Palestine Red Crescent Society told The Jerusalem Post Thursday that though its casualty count was not final, it knew for certain of 200 children and 85 women among the dead.
When asked whether the Red Crescent Society was capable of telling the difference between innocent civilians and gunmen, he acknowledged this could be tricky. "But militants usually wear uniforms and carry weapons, and we don't have [large] numbers [of dead] like this," Awad said. Israeli defense sources say many Hamas gunmen are fighting out of uniform, however.
Awad added that, "Many of the militants have died while they were not actively involved in the fighting. According to international law these people are considered civilians if they are not involved in actively fighting, but they were targeted anyway."
Florian Westphal, head of media relations for the International Committee of the Red Cross, based in Geneva, reported that "the records provided by 14 hospitals in the Gaza Strip to the ICRC [include] 3,070 wounded persons [who] were admitted to hospitals, of whom a third were children and women.
Avi Bell, a professor at Bar-Ilan University Law School and director of the Global Law Forum at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said the definition of an active combatant can be vague. "A warrior is considered one whether he is carrying a weapon or not, if he is fighting as part of an organized force. There are certain situations in which a combatant is clearly out of the fighting, such as if he was injured or released," he said.
According to Bell, the different numbers could also stem from differing definitions of combatant that relate to whether the fighting is defined as "international" - involving two states - or regional, like the conflict in Gaza. "Some commentators think that the definition of a combatant in [regional] fighting is much wider - for example, it can include inactive reserve forces," he said. "The gaps in the numbers could be explained by the fact that they [the Palestinians] define a combatant narrowly," he said. "Israel considers a civilian anyone who does not belong to the armed forces - unless they are actively involved in fighting. It also considers a combatant someone who is actively involved in planning the fighting, even if they are not armed. This concept is acceptable to most of the international community," he said.
Bell added that even if the legal definition was clear, Israel would not have accurate numbers yet.
#2
Awad added that, "Many of the militants have died while they were not actively involved in the fighting. According to international law these people are considered civilians if they are not involved in actively fighting, but they were targeted anyway."
so if I shoot, hide my gun, then walk by the guy I shot, I'm a civilian and untouchable? F*ck them. It's illegal to fight out of uniform (see: the oft-cited Geneva Accords (not the 'Juice are illegal' parts, the real parts). They can be summarily executed IIUC, And they were. I'd do the same.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2009 16:19 Comments ||
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#3
I believe that Hamas has said that all Juice are legitimate targets, even small children, since they will someday serve in the IDF. Now that some Arab human shields children are being killed, all they do is whine.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/10/2009 16:32 Comments ||
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Awad knows that statement is total bullshit. He also knows that it gives him _just_enough_ cover that the MSM (who also know its BS) will feel justified in quoting anything he says as fact.
A senior Israeli military commander involved in Operation Cast Lead said on Saturday that Hamas militants are suffering from exhaustion and are deserting battle. Geez, they must be cutting back on the days off. The commander told reporters that Amir Mansi, the commander of Hamas's rocket-launching program in the Gaza City area who was killed by the IDF on Saturday, fired mortars himself after junior Hamas operatives refused to go outside, fearing an Israeli strike. To the last drop of somebody elses blood, right, boys?
The IDF official estimated that more than 300 Hamas operatives have been killed since Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza one week ago. This is the highest estimate provided thus far, and the IDF said that Hamas has purposely refrained from releasing casualty figures among its military wing. The commander added that the army is working to tighten its grip on the northern section of the Gaza Strip.
The IDF earlier on Saturday killed Mansi, an expert with regard to long-range Grad rockets. He was identified by Israeli troops on Saturday firing mortars from Gaza. The soldiers opened fire, killing Mansi and injuring two Hamas operatives who were with him.
#3
I don't think they have psychic powers, more like a logical assumption...
Jerusalem Post
The IDF commander said the fact that Mansi was personally involved in attacking Israeli troops showed that the Hamas military wing was in a serious state of distress, as senior Hamas operatives would not ordinarily venture out into battlefields.
#4
and of course the fact that he did get whacked just re-inforces the underlings' belief that going out and fighting is a bad idea. That's a twofer for the IDF.
Also the Hamas launched rocket count seems to be down to 20 today. It was 70+ before Op Cast Lead. It was about 50-60 before the land operation and was 30 or so on Wed and Thurs.
IDF troops in the Gaza Strip on Saturday targeted Hamas operative Amir Mansi, a senior member of Izzadin Kassam, the group's military wing.
A senior commander of IDF operations in the Strip said that Mansi was the head of the Gaza Strip rocket division, and was Mansi was previously involved in dozens of rocket attacks against Israel in recent weeks. He was also said to be a close associate of Hizbullah, and was known to receive information from the group on a regular basis.
Mansi was killed whilst attempting to fire mortars at Givati troops at Jabal Rice, in the northern Gaza Strip. Can we have the virgins pic? Pleeeease
For the first time since Operation Cast Lead was launched, an Israeli journalist was allowed to enter the Strip alongside the fighting forces. What does it look like on the frontline?
Gaza City was quiet most of the day, but it was exactly this calm that had Givati Brigade Commander, Colonel Ilan Malka, so concerned: "Everyone should drill the procedure for thwarting attempted abductions. That's what (Hamas) are aiming for now. We also have to review the procedures for thwarting suicide attacks against the troops," he told his officers in one of the security briefings. The warning is not an empty one. By night, the IDF had scores of abduction alerts, suggesting Hamas is preparing to kidnap soldiers in the area Givati forces were deployed in.
"When we took over the area so aggressively, Hamas pretty much disappeared," Malka said, standing in his impromptu headquarters on the outskirts of Gaza City. "But I'm convinced they are still here, either underground or in hiding. They will venture out to try and abduct soldiers so they can boast accomplishments."
Malka is proud of Givati's achievements -- the brigade was able to penetrate Hamas defenses within hours and take over a fortified and booby-trapped hub with virtually zero resistance. His primary concern right now is to keep the scene from turning into a snare.
We stopped in a backyard of an auto shop. The APC (armored personnel carrier) backed up until it nearly touched the wall -- or the hole in the wall -- into which we leaped out. The Givati force moved through holes cut into the wall surrounding each house, as they took over the neighborhood, careful not to expose themselves to sniper fire or to the traps laid for them in the buildings' foyers. We're here with several reservists form the brigade's reconnaissance company. They have a large reserve force and the Palestinian neighborhood soon rustles with officers who have come to join the fighting. "I couldn't stay home when the guys are fighting," said Omri, while on the way to meet Lieutenant Colonel Ofer Levy, the brigade's deputy commander. "We try not to stand next to windows, so to avoid sniper fire," explains another officer, ducking under a wide window. In the kitchen, we find remnants of meal left abruptly. The homeowners, like more than a 1,000 of the neighborhood's residents, fled following IDF warnings.
Levy said that Hamas operatives were caught so off guard that they left their explosives in plain sight and vanished. The soldiers, he added, keep uncovering tunnels; but before we can visit one, a more urgent matter must be dealt with: The Brigade's commander, who is in a GOC security assessment, orders all fighting, projectile fire and aerial strikes stop at 1 pm for three hours of a "humanitarian pause," at which time local residents would be able to stock up on essential provisions. "We can't go forward but we can fire if we are in danger," I'm told.
One of the company commanders runs over and excitingly tells us that the "Caterpillars" -- D9 bulldozers used by the IDF -- have uncovered a tunnel full of containers; but someone tells him that this tunnel is a familiar find. We head out to inspect the tunnel, which is located in fairly dangerous territory, in order to decide what to do with it. We get a short security briefing, individual "combat numbers" and off we go, moving through the alleys, the soldiers pointing their weapons at the top floors or the holes in the walls, as need be. Hamas is nowhere to be found, but it could reappear at any moment. We arrive at an open area and the troops deploy quickly. We are treading through the Gaza quagmire -- and there is a lot of it around.
We run across a local family in one of the buildings. Grandparents, a few young parents, some children and a few toddlers. Sitting on a rug, their legs are covered in blankets and two soldiers are standing guard nearby. "What about them?" I ask. "They're free to go if they want to, but they don't want to," said Eilon Perry, Givati's operations officer. "They informed us they would be staying in the house and we have no choice but to accept that."
The family suddenly notices the cameras, and immediately, the expression on their faces changes. "We have no food," they say in Arabic, as one of the youngsters suggests we interview him in English about their plight. Givati troops are extremely concerned about being portrayed as abusing innocent civilians. Perry points to a stack of canned goods, water bottles and other provisions. "We provided some of that and they cook and eat quite well," said Perry. The Palestinians seem to understand him and one of them smiles. It's a war -- they had to try.
A sniper lies in wait on one of the building's top floors, peeping through a hole in the wall. Those holes are the scars left across Gaza, the ones that will be there long after the IDF leaves. The commander and his soldiers recite a prayer before heading out to the tunnel again. The number of religious soldiers and settler youth in the brigade and in other IDF combat units is high and increasing, I'm told. The officers tell me how important the support of the home front is to them. There is a real sense of accomplishment and they are convinced that the ground incursion is important. Many of them fear the military would avoid it and believe that it is the only way to secure peace and quiet for southern Israel. "Besides, we got tired of hearing how Israeli citizens are getting hit while we did nothing about it," said Alon from the Golan Heights, while petting his dog. He is an Oketz serviceman -- the IDF's K-9 unit -- which is a pivotal part of the force. The troops have two bomb-sniffing dogs with them, sniffing the entryway to each house before we go in. The dogs are equipped with special boots on their paws, to keep them from being hurt by the shredded metal and broken glass covering the ground.
We make our way to the tunnel on foot at first, but the last leg is exposed to the neighborhood north of us. The company commander and I go into the belly of a tank that lets us out at the tunnel's entrance. Nobody is taking any chances. The tunnel is built out of a vertical shaft leading into an underground passageway lined with cement. It is clearly packed with explosives and would be dangerous to move through. The tunnel leads into a house some 300 yards away. "My god," said the commander. "It leads up to that house... I almost decided to camp there for a few hours before I saw it was booby-trapped. Had we stayed there we would have been in for a very nasty visit."
Through the entirety of the "humanitarian pause" in the fighting, the streets were empty. Maybe it was because the stores were closed and maybe because the neighborhood, which was crowded up until a few days ago, is empty. The force is patrolling through it, uncovering weapon and rocket caches; D9 bulldozers follow, ripping out launching pads. Other operational activities target buildings suspected as rocket manufacturing facilities and weapons' labs. Still, caution is the order of the day and the company is vigilant -- they are happy to report having only a few minor casualties since the operation began, and say that things have been quiet in their sector. They pray it stays that way. This is definitely not the same military we saw in the Second Lebanon War. I wouldn't want to run into any of these warriors in a dark alley.
Just before we turn back, I ask the brigade commander how long he thinks they would be staying in the Strip. "For as long as we have to," he says. "I honestly don't know. We're ready to say for weeks, or months." Will the operation be expanded? "We currently have no such plans," he said, trying to keep a businesslike expression. His officers were already looking at a map of another area in the city.
#1
Considering the exposure time is essentially infinite, one would think the Israelis would be able to see the tunnels through use of advanced ground penetrating radar and image processing.
#3
Bah, just fill the tunnels with Carbon monoxide gas and then see how many bodies you can find in it later. Honestly, persistant nerve agents are better but CO will do the job.
#4
They have a large reserve force and the Palestinian neighborhood soon rustles with officers who have come to join the fighting. "I couldn't stay home when the guys are fighting," said Omri
?
The reserves can opt in by their own volition? How does that work?
US consigns 3,000 tonnes of "ammunition" to Israel
January 10, 2009, 11:22 AM (GMT+02:00)
The US Navy's Military Sealift Command is hiring a merchant ship to carry the arms on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to Israel in mid-to-late January, according to Reuters. A 'hazardous material" designation on the manifest mentions explosive substances and detonators, but no other details. One broker said that the size of a shipment of this kind has not been seen for years. DEBKAfile's military sources note that the Israel's air, ground, tank and sea offensive against Hamas in Gaza entered its 15th day Saturday, Jan. 10.
#8
Explosives usually bring their own oxygen to the show, for example, ammonium nitrate:
[NH4}+ [NO3]-
3 Oxygen atoms provide the combusion with the hydrogen to make steam, but you can also get lots of noxious compounds, to with the nitrogen atoms around.
If you want to suck the oxygen out of the tunnel, then use a FAE explosive, or napalm, which is not in vogue now.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/10/2009 12:28 Comments ||
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#9
Detonating the explosives kills a few. By filling it with CO gas, you get more than a few. They won't want to give those up and will keep trying to get it and I doubt many of the scum are familiar enough with CO to recognize why people who go in don't come out. Besides, if it explodes, they know it's Israel or a work accident. If they don't explode and anyone going in just never comes out, it has far better effects psychologically on them.
#10
How about connecting Gaza tunnel system to the Mediterranean sea: Hamas "fighters" would be able to hide from Zionists and take swim lessons at the same time?
#12
CO has the same density as air (essentially N2) and will diffuse quickly and lose it's concentration. you need a heavier molecule that will stay settled in the tunnel. i suggest propane (without the mercaptin(sp?) that usually makes it smell) odorless and heavier than air it is a fatal atmosphere to breathe for very long.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
01/10/2009 15:30 Comments ||
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#13
But Abu, what happens when the gophers light up a smoke?
#16
Do what we used to do to gophers when we were kids: calcium carbide in water, let er bubble, then light er off. Bloody hell underground when the acetylene gas explodes.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/10/2009 18:18 Comments ||
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#17
You had all the fun a very interesting childhood, AP. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/10/2009 19:11 Comments ||
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#18
AP used to waterboard rodents, just to teach the others a lesson
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2009 19:18 Comments ||
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#20
It's spelled 'mercaptan', Abu, because chemicals of that class (with the -SH group) are able to capture mercury atoms and detoxify them. That they smell like s^%t is, in fact, because s^%t contains the methyl mercaptan, CH3SH.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/10/2009 21:40 Comments ||
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(AKI) - Rockets fired by Hamas militants on Friday struck Tel Nof, a major Israeli airbase near Tel Aviv, the group's military wing the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades claimed on its Al-Aqsa TV channel.
The alleged rocket strike came after Israeli firepower continued to pound the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on the 14th day of Operation Cast Lead. "With the help of Allah, we at 8 a.m. this morning managed to penetrate the furthest north into Israel that our rockets have yet reached," said the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades.
Tel Nof airbase is located just 27 kilometres from Tel Aviv and houses a number of Israeli fighter and helicopter squadrons. Israel allegedly stores its nuclear weapons around the base.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The way to stop this is for the Juice to deploy an F-150 to tow a tactical nuclear mortar launching Q Ship along the border.
Straight 6, 5 speed and a sliding rear window to facilitate communication between the trucks driver and the ships captain.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
01/10/2009 0:15 Comments ||
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#2
You're obviously the love child Joe Mendiola and Shipman should have had ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/10/2009 1:37 Comments ||
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#3
I'd hate to meet the one they shouldn't have had.
Posted by: Ulong the Ruthless3244 DBA Mike N. ||
01/10/2009 2:40 Comments ||
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First signs of Hamas cracking, Israel lets Gazan delegates leave for Cairo
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
January 10, 2009, 12:29 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israel's Gaza offensive on 15th day
Israel's Gaza offensive on 15th day
As Hamas showed first signs of cracking under Israel's massive 14-day assault, three Gaza leaders were allowed by Israel and Egypt to make their way secretly to Cairo for a second round of ceasefire talks â this time without conditions.
DEBKAfile's military sources report Jemal Abu Hashem, who rarely appears on public, Salah Bardaweel, leader of Hamas parliament faction, and Heiman Ta'a, member of the military wing's command were allowed to exit Gaza, Friday, Jan 9 and make their way to the northern Sinai town of El Arish. From there, an Egyptian military flight flew them to Cairo. They were permitted to leave after consenting to an unconditional ceasefire, dropping their demand for open Gaza crossings and accepting that Israeli forces would hold their present lines.
#6
Hamas hitting a major Isreali airbase is like the proverbial room full of monkeys sitting at typewriters trying to write Shakespeare...sooner or later they (Hamas) are bound to get something done.
#7
Actually, Hamas hits their target 100% of the time. They aim at the ground, and they always hit it. Sometimes the ground is near a kindergarten, sometimes it is near a military base.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/10/2009 11:53 Comments ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
01/10/2009 13:39 Comments ||
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#10
Actually, the nearest Israeli military base is about 35Km due east of Rafah, about halfway between Rafah and Beersheba. Even if Hamass could hit it, they wouldn't do any damage. Everything essential to operations is pretty well hardened. Google Earth coordinates: 31°14'3.25"N, 34°37'36.59"E. There's another airfield near Ashdod - they MAY have hit that. The only other military airfield in the area is Dimona, and it's outside even the farthest range of a Grad rocket.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/10/2009 14:04 Comments ||
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Israeli jets and helicopters bombarded Gaza Friday and Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets, as Israel's government said it will press forward with its offensive despite a U.N. resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
One Israeli airstrike killed two Hamas militants and another unidentified man, while another flattened a five-story building in northern Gaza, killing at least seven people, including an infant, Hamas security officials said. By midday, 19 Palestinians had been killed.
In all, Israeli aircraft struck more than 30 targets before dawn, and constant explosions continued after first light. Friday's deaths in Gaza pushed the Palestinian death toll to more than 760 in the two-week-old conflict, with at least half of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Thirteen Israelis have died.
In Israel's first official response to the U.N. Security Council resolution, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Israel "has never agreed to let an external body decide its right to protect the security of its citizens."
The military "will continue acting to protect Israeli citizens and will carry out the missions it was given," the statement read. The rockets fell in Israel on Friday "only prove that the U.N.'s decision is not practical and will not be kept in practice by the Palestinian murder organizations."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
What I want to know is if the punishment applies equally to Hamass.
#2
Friday's deaths in Gaza pushed the Palestinian death toll to more than 760 in the two-week-old conflict, with at least half of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials.
Well, they are only civilians part time. The rest of the time they are volunteers for Hamas as teachers, and massage specialists, and gardeners, etc. Love the civic attitude with those guys.
#3
Note that the death toll has only doubled since the first three days, but the percentage of "civilians" has climbed from 15% to 50%. More Hamass arrogance to think we'd believe that bs.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/10/2009 14:09 Comments ||
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Israel carried out a series of air strikes throughout the Gaza Strip after nightfall. Hamas said one of its fighters was killed and four others were wounded. Medical officials said 10 civilians were also wounded in the strikes.
An Israeli air strike in the city of Gaza damaged a building that housed production and transmission facilities for a number of television stations, most of them Arabic, journalists said. At least two people were wounded.
An Iranian state television station said two of its staff were wounded by the Israeli rocket strike on the building housing its office in Gaza.
"Israeli rocket strikes Gaza media building, wounding two," Press TV said in a breaking news headline, after initially reporting no casualties in the incident. "Israeli forces have targeted Press TV and al-Alam television stations in the Gaza Strip," the English-language satellite station said. Al-Alam is Iran's Arab-language television station.
An Israeli military spokesperson said the building had not been targeted, though it may have sustained "collateral damage".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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Muslim rebels are believed to be behind the bombing of an electricity transmission tower on the Filipino island of Mindanao earlier today, which left several towns and villages without power. The Philippine army suspects that "rogue members" of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front planted four devices. The government-owned National Transmission Corporation says it could take two or three days to restore power.
The bombing occurred a week before China's State Grid Corporation was scheduled to take over the operation of the Filipino power grid. Around 40 transmission towers were damaged or destroyed last year in attacks.
Sri Lankan forces captured the strategic Elephant Pass base from the Tamil Tigers on Friday, ousting the rebels from their last stronghold on the Jaffna peninsula and boxing them into a shrinking pocket of land in the northeast.
In a nationally televised address, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa praised the victory. "Our soldiers by this evening have been able to totally liberate Elephant Pass from the clutches of the rebels," he said. The capture of the base gives the government nearly full control of the northern peninsula, the Tamil's cultural capital, for the first time since 2000. It also puts the country's major north-south highway completely under its control for the first time in 23 years. The rebels are now confined to a small area off jungle around their last remaining stronghold of Mullaittivu. The rebels were not available for comment.
The government, which seized the rebels' administrative capital of Kilinochchi last week, has promised to crush the rebel group and end the Indian Ocean island nation's 25-year-old civil war. But, in a reminder of the rebels' ability to cause destruction even as they suffer conventional defeats, the rebels detonated a roadside bomb in the country's east on Friday that killed three air force troops and four civilians, military spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said.
On Friday, government forces marching from the north and south broke into Elephant Pass and fought heavy battles with the rebels, the military said. The base is located on the isthmus connecting the northern Jaffna peninsula with the rest of the island. Analysts said the guerrillas appeared to have withdrawn their artillery and heavy weaponry from the area and were sacrificing their bases on the peninsula to consolidate forces near Mullaittivu, where they were likely to make a stand.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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(IsraelNN.com) The Lebanese Army Friday arrested what it said was a squad numbering seven people who it says are responsible for the Katyusha rocket attack Thursday against Israel's North.
The suspects admitted that they were members of the Lebanese Hamas movement.
The Lebanese Army and a UNIFIL force discovered an additional, ready-to-launch rocket pod.
U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese army troops found an old cache of rockets near the border with Israel on Friday, a day after at least four rockets were fired into northern Israel.
The U.N. force, UNIFIL, said the cache, consisting of 34 Grad-P rockets and some boxes of ammunition, were placed in two old bunkers covered by camouflage nets and appeared to date from the 2006 war between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel.
"There is no sign of any recent use of the bunkers and the weapons appear to date from the period of the 2006 conflict," a UNIFIL statement said.
The Lebanese army said in a separate statement the weapons found near the village of Kafr Hamam were a rocket launcher and 24 rockets. It described the weapons as old and unusable.
At least three Katyusha rockets were fired into Israel from south Lebanon on Thursday, wounding two people, in an attack linked to Israel's deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The Lebanese government condemned the attack as a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution that halted the 2006 war while Hezbollah denied any responsibility. Some Lebanese officials pointed a finger at Palestinian militants.
The statement quoted UNIFIL commander Major General Claudio Graziano as saying the peacekeepers and Lebanese troops were taking concrete measures to ensure the border area was free of any illegal armed personnel, assets and weapons.
"Recent developments have prompted us to enhance our joint presence on the ground. It was in the course of this intensified patrolling activity that the weapons cache was found," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
look on the bright side...It only took them 3 years
#3
Maybe it was the signs in Arabic, English, Hebrew, French and six other languages that said "This way to the secret Hizbollah rocket cache" that helped.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/10/2009 16:35 Comments ||
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Another scoop for PressTV Iran... Iranian hackers have launched a massive campaign against Israeli web sites and have managed to bring many of them to a standstill. Ashyaneh, a group of Iranian hackers brought down the Israeli secret service's web site on Wednesday for more than two hours. The group has hacked over 50 Israeli web sites since Wednesday in a show of anger against Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, Fars news agency reported on Friday. The news agency said that it will reveal further details on the serial cyber attacks in the near future.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/10/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
And the Iranians have deployed the dreaded 157th Photoshop Brigade!
Gonna repent, Salim?
Yeah...
That's good. Go and sin no more.
SAN'A, Yemen (AP) The lawyer for Osama bin Laden's former driver says his client has been released from a Yemeni prison after serving out his sentence. Lawyer Khaled Al-Anas says Salim Hamdan was released Friday.
A Yemeni Interior Ministry official has confirmed the release but says it happened Saturday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
A U.S. military tribunal convicted Hamdan in August of aiding al-Qaida and sentenced him to 5 1/2 years in prison. He had already served five years and a month at Guantanamo Bay prison at the time.
The U.S. transferred Hamdan to his home country Yemen at the end of 2008 to serve out the rest of his sentence Yeah, a whole 2 months of it. But his old buddies at Guantanamo don't appear to be too happy... Washington lawyer David Remes, who represents 17 Yemenis, said some of his clients launched the latest hunger strike after Yemeni Salim Hamdan went home in November, a month shy of completion of his 66-month prison sentence."Theyve actually gone ballistic at the fact that Hamdan, who was convicted of supporting terrorism, was released and they, who have been charged with nothing, continue to languish there," said Remes, who met with clients before Christmas.
Long-held detainees, most held without charge since early 2002, were "elated" that Hamdan was leaving the prison camps, Remes said. But, "that doesnt mitigate the perverseness of the situation. If an ordinary detainee knew that all you had to be (was) Osamas servant to get out, a lot of them would have fabricated confessions that they were Osamas servant."
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.
AUSTRALIAN special forces troops have killed a Taliban leader believed to have orchestrated the rocket attack that killed an Australian soldier in Afghanistan last weekend.
Three NATO soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan Friday while a suicide bomb blast ripped through a fruit market in a small town, killing five civilians and a police commander, authorities said. The multinational NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not say how the soldiers were killed or give their identities.
Ugandan rebels have killed 38 south Sudanese villagers since Christmas in the latest of a wave of attacks that have left hundreds of people dead in the region, a Sudanese official said on Thursday.
Four small bombs exploded outside a theatre and near a major government building in an eastern Pakistan city late last night, but there were no casualties, police said.
Unidentified gunmen shot dead two government employees in North Waziristan Agency late on Thursday, an official said. The ambush took place in Asadkhel village, around 35 kilometres south of agency headquarters Miranshah. Amanullah Jan, a junior administrator in Razmak town, and his security guard were killed, while Jan's deputy and another guard were injured after gunmen hiding on a roadside shot at their car, a local official told AFP. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Omar on Friday told reporters that the Taliban had freed abducted members of a jirga of Bajaur Agency's Mandal tribe. Talking over telephone, Omar said the jirga members had been released unconditionally in Ambar tehsil of Bajaur. The political administration has not confirmed the release of the 13-member jirga so far. Salarzai Tehsildar Adalat Khan told Daily Times that the political administration had no clue about the jirga members' whereabouts. Omar also said the TTP stood by its decision of not fighting security forces in Bajaur. He said the decision was made to improve law and order in the agency.
A fierce gunbattle between government forces and militants holed up in icy Himalayan caves for nine days in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) has ended after about a dozen militants escaped, the army said on Friday.
Israeli jets and helicopters bombarded Gaza Friday and Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets, as Israel's government said it will press forward with its offensive despite a U.N. resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
Israel carried out a series of air strikes throughout the Gaza Strip after nightfall. Hamas said one of its fighters was killed and four others were wounded. Medical officials said 10 civilians were also wounded in the strikes. 
Sri Lankan forces captured the strategic Elephant Pass base from the Tamil Tigers on Friday, ousting the rebels from their last stronghold on the Jaffna peninsula and boxing them into a shrinking pocket of land in the northeast.
Iranian hackers have launched a massive campaign against Israeli web sites and have managed to bring many of them to a standstill. Ashyaneh, a group of Iranian hackers brought down the Israeli secret service's web site on Wednesday for more than two hours. The group has hacked over 50 Israeli web sites since Wednesday in a show of anger against Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, Fars news agency reported on Friday. The news agency said that it will reveal further details on the serial cyber attacks in the near future.
