#2
I'm truly surprised CNN airs this story. Besides the parts where the taliban take in children, feed them, give them an education and their first job.
Posted by: ed ||
07/07/2009 19:56 Comments ||
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#3
Some of the children are as young as 11, the officials say
Other sources have said as young as 7. Sorta like the XY chromosome version of Aisha.
Posted by: ed ||
07/07/2009 19:57 Comments ||
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When the soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division penetrated the insurgent-ridden Tangi Valley in the heart of Wardak Province, they braved rockets and roadside bombs. They succeeded in erecting a small outpost overlooking the lush, fertile dale in what is one of the most dangerous areas in the province.
Then they set about their main task: winning over the locals. They called a shura, or council, with the local elders here, to introduce themselves and take requests from the villagers.
"But to be honest, they didn't want us here," recalls 1st Lt. Christopher Wallgren, who commands the company of soldiers stationed in the Tangi, in eastern Afghanistan. "They all just asked us to leave. They didn't want us to interfere with their lives."
As thousands of US soldiers pour into Afghanistan this summer and push into uncharted territories, such an environment of mistrust will be one of the many challenges they will face in attempting to secure the country.
Early this year, nearly 1,500 troops landed in Wardak, which neighbors Kabul Province to the south, in a move that prefigured the larger influx this summer. Officials in Washington are hoping that the troop increase can reverse the growing insurgency. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently told reporters that the military buildup was "absolutely necessary" and that the new soldiers will have to force a dramatic turnaround in the security situation over the next 12 to 18 months.
In the areas where new forces landed this winter, violence has increased just as officials in Washington predicted. In Wardak, the number of insurgent-initiated attacks so far this year has jumped by more than 300 percent from the same period last year, according to statistics provided by analyst Sami Kovanen of Tundra Security.
Convincing Afghans not an easy task
For the troops here in the Tangi, the key to a turnaround lies in convincing the locals that they are here to protect them. But the soldiers say that this has been difficult. While they are welcomed in some areas in Jalrez district, for example, where the insurgency has weakened in the past year, children regularly greet soldiers with waves and smiles they have had a different reception in other parts of the province.
On a typical vehicle patrol through the Tangi valley, which is part of Sayadabad district, soldiers closely watch the villagers who line the streets and stare at the passing convoy.
"Okay, we're heading into a bazaar," says one soldier over the radio to his comrades.
"Roger, heading into the bazaar. There's people all around," comes the reply from another vehicle in the convoy.
"These people out here don't like us, so keep your eyes open," the first soldier says.
Suddenly, a dull thud resounds in the vehicle. Then another. "They are throwing rocks at us!" shouts one soldier over the radio.
Children by the roadside scurry into the shops, while the adults avert their eyes.
Soldiers here recount instances when they have handed out candy to children, only to have it hurled back at them. When they recently killed a leading Taliban commander in the area named Mohebullah, a nearby town closed its bazaar for hours in remembrance of the fallen insurgent.
When they ask locals for information about insurgents operating in the area, they often get evasive answers or lies.
"I don't know why, but people there just don't seem to like us," says Pfc. Christopher Sues. "Maybe they are happy with the way they live."
In the absence of government, Taliban rules
According to locals, US intelligence officials, and analysts, the troops are facing local resistance for a variety of reasons.
"In Wardak, most of the insurgents are locals," says an American intelligence officer associated with the forces here, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"Every second or third house has a son or a brother in the Taliban," says Roshanak Wardak, a member of parliament from Sayadabad district of Wardak.
Even when locals don't support the insurgents, they are often reluctant to side with the troops out of fear of Taliban reprisals, he continues.
"Sometimes we'll meet some locals on a patrol and they will be very friendly," says Pfc. Jeremy Grimm. "But we'll come another day and those same people will be very cold to us because someone is watching."
Over the years, the central government has been nonexistent in most of the province.
"The government sphere of influence is limited to Maydan Shahr [the provincial capital] and Jalrez [where the insurgency has weakened this year]," says the American intelligence officer. The Taliban has enjoyed a de facto control of such districts as Sayadabad, Chak, and Jaghatu for more than a year. During that time they established a parallel government, which dealt with local disputes and sometimes even collected taxes.
Some locals viewed this as the lesser of two evils when compared with the distant and corrupt Kabul administration.
In one recent shura held in Sayadabad district, elders asked the Americans to leave, saying that they were happy with Taliban rule, which limits crime, and complaining that the troops "cause the price of everything to increase," according to one participant of the meeting.
Insurgency limited by ethnic appeal
But such sentiments may not be universal, says Habibullah Rafeh, policy analyst with the Kabul Academy of Sciences.
"The Taliban's appeal is limited to their own ethnic group, and also has a strong tribal dimension," he says.
In some areas in the east, for example, there are anti-Taliban tribes that regularly cooperate with Western forces. Parts of Wardak made up of the Hazara minority, for example, are strongly in favor of the troops. And most in urban areas such as Kabul don't identify with the rurally based insurgents.
But here in Wardak, and in some of the places farther south where US troops will be heading this summer, the insurgents often share the same ethnicity, tribe, culture, and worldview as the communities in which they are embedded, says Mr. Rafeh.
#1
Not complex at all. The Pashtuns favor the Taliban, and the non-Pashtuns don't. And you can generally tell the Pashtuns from the non-Pashtuns just by looking at them.
#2
"The Taliban's appeal is limited to their own ethnic group, and also has a strong tribal dimension," he says.
So you arm every other ethnic group to the gills, train them, and then let those tribes 'police' the recalcitrant, making sure the participating tribes never forget the pain and suffering brought into their homes by the Taliban.
River Liberty was described as an operation. But it had the feel of an invasion. U.S. Marines were moving, as an expeditionary force, into the homeland of their enemy, the Taliban.
At 4:30 a.m. one day last week, the company with whom my writer son, Carlos, and I were embedded, Golf Company, 2/8 Marines, stepped out of the U.S. base at Hassan Abad, in southern Helmand province, and headed south into certain trouble.
The Taliban were determined not to let Golf Company just walk south through the Helmand River Valley unchallenged. Within an hour of the initial push, we saw dirt kick up in front of us, then the crack of automatic weapons fire. We dove for cover in this, the first of eleven ambushes Golf Company encountered during the first two days of the operation.
Remarkably, in the face of the resistance, the Marines, who have a reputation as hard chargers, rarely fired back. They wanted to, but their command had warned the young Marines that even one civilian casualty could negate the No. 1 objective of this operation -- winning the trust and respect of the farmers of the Helmand River Valley.
Also, along our path, the Taliban had set 12 improvised explosive devices - not on roads, but mostly in the open farm fields in which we walked. Nine were discovered before they could be detonated. Three others exploded as Marine patrols passed. Two Marines suffered concussions. Mark it up to the random chance and luck of the battlefield that no one died.
There was one more enemy out there that the Marines could not push past or kill -- HEAT. The word "hot" doesn't do justice to the temperature. It sucks the life out of a normal person on a normal day. The Marines carrying heavy packs, ammunition, body armor, helmets, food and water are not normal and this was not a normal day. It was war and by the end of each day, it was a victory to just put one foot in front of the other in the difficult terrain.
On a map, walking south through flat farmlands seemed easy. The map, though, doesn't reveal the difficulty in traversing fields criss-crossed with hundreds of irrigation ditches -- some too wide to leap across. Most Marines marched miles in wet boots and socks each day even though one of the world's driest deserts was only a mile away.
On the third day of the operation, we finally reached our objective -- Koshtay, a farming village on the banks of the Helmand River and at the heart of the poppy and opium trade that funds the Taliban. Golf Company expected a tough fight here, but the Taliban either retreated or hid their weapons and melted into the local scenery
So far, the Marines can count the trip south as a success. Now the hard part begins, convincing the Afghans to reject the Taliban and embrace a U.S.-supported Afghan government.
A lot is riding on the young shoulders of U.S. Marines. Young men reputed for their brute force must now display a soft touch.
"Neither the Pentagon nor the British Ministry of Defence will win Afghanistan through firepower. The strategy of "hearts and minds plus" cannot be realistic, turning Afghanistan into a vast and indefinite barracks with hundreds of thousands of western soldiers sitting atop a colonial Babel of administrators and professionals. It will never be secure. It offers Afghanistan a promise only of relentless war, one that Afghans outside Kabul know that warlords, drug cartels and Taliban sympathisers are winning."
When the locals see the American Infidels appear to be running from the Mighty Taliban they will be convinced about who's winning.
#2
"The strategy of "hearts and minds plus" cannot be realistic, turning Afghanistan into a vast and indefinite barracks with hundreds of thousands of western soldiers sitting atop a colonial Babel of administrators and professionals."
thats not the plan. See Iraq. we dont have hundreds of thousands there, and dont intend to. Enough to clear out a province, free the locals from fear of the talibs, and build local administration (with the cooperation of local tribals) to keep the talibs from coming back (and get locals who used to work as talibs to be turned and stay turned)
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
07/07/2009 16:03 Comments ||
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#4
Ironically as heck, I am in favor of the minimal shooting approach at first, but for odd reasons.
First of all is acclimatization. The assumption is that these Marines are "green". They haven't been in country long enough to get used to the place and the people. They cannot assume that everyone with a gun is a bad guy. They also have to get used to the weather.
Second of all, the bad guys know the place. They also know that if they can convince the locals that the "new guys" are nasty or trigger happy, it will be hard as hell to convince them otherwise. The Taliban have made themselves very unpopular, so the Marines want to keep it that way, not have to start from scratch.
Third is that the Marines are crystal clear that the support they get from Washington is minimal, and that the politicians will double cross them in a heartbeat--so no sticking your necks out.
#5
Then why send the Marines? Send in a marching band: The have great uniforms, the locals will like the music and there is little chance they will shoot at the Taliban.
#6
Third is that the Marines are crystal clear that the support they get from Washington is minimal, and that the politicians will double cross them in a heartbeat--so no sticking your necks out.
Is that any way to maintain morale. The next thing we know there will be the fraging of superiors who order them to go on senseless, no win missions. Been there, seen that.
#8
Uncle Sam's Misguided Children took 7 KIA on Monday alone. If casualties continue at this pace, Iraq is going to look like a cakewalk in retrospect.
#9
And let us not forget the spelled backwards "Yes my retarded ass signed up" US ARMY are also bullet catchers for Unc. Sam too often lately for innane reasons. And before people get all bent, I was in the Army so there.
#10
I wonder if these newfangled rules of engagement are the break the Taliban have been waiting for - they may be an open season permit on Marines (with no bag limit) for the Taliban.
#12
#7 Yea, like take the Humvee out for reconnaisance, park it, and smoke cigs in place for 3 hours, turn around and come back. Happens.
Posted by GirlThursday
...or get captured by the Saddam's Republican Guard, lol.
#2
You can't cut-and-paste because its an image. I won't hot-link the image but the gist of it is....
(any spelling errors are probably my typos...)
The use of air-to-ground munitions and indirect fires against residential compounds is only authorized under very limited and prescribed conditions (specific conditions deleted...)
Any entry into an Afghan house should always be accomblished by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), wiht the support of local authorities, and account for the unique cultural sensitivities toward local women.
No ISAF forces will enter or fire upon, or file into, a mosque or any religious or historical site except in self-defense. All searches and entries for any other reason will be conducted by ANSF.
So how is becoming a running joke going to help us win hearts and minds?
#4
There is a tactical case to be made for harshe rules of engagement, and for less harsh depending on conditions on the ground, including political conditions. Some folks on left and right like to opine for one or the other without respect to local conditions.
I dont know the local conditions well enough to say whether this is right or wrong. I also dont know how much the military is onboard with the new policy, though it sounds like it would fit so some degree with Petraeus and counterinsurgency doctrine.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
07/07/2009 11:49 Comments ||
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#5
"Any entry into an Afghan house should always be accomblished by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), wiht the support of local authorities, and account for the unique cultural sensitivities toward local women."
This makes sense. IIUC it is based to a considerable degree on experience in Iraq.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
07/07/2009 11:50 Comments ||
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#6
"No ISAF forces will enter or fire upon, or file into, a mosque or any religious or historical site except in self-defense. All searches and entries for any other reason will be conducted by ANSF.
No ISAF forces will enter or fire upon, or file into, a mosque or any religious or historical site except in self-defense. All searches and entries for any other reason will be conducted by ANSF."
IOW - if we are being fired on from a mosque, we will fire back. If we are not being fired on, but suspect a weapons cache, etc, we will surround the place and call on the friendlies to go in and do the search.
Again, I dont think this policy is as weak as some seem to think.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
07/07/2009 11:52 Comments ||
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#7
What was the rule prior to TD6?
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/07/2009 12:21 Comments ||
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#9
General McKiernan's relief after less than one year was done shabbily and with little regard to truth on the ground. General McChrystal is the new administration darling. He's been appointed the Afghani Zsar and been given a mandate by Gates and Barry to play softball. The natural overreaction and safe-siding of this directive at all levels will surely get soldiers and marines killed. Fold the tentage and close the club USAF, you're done. They never liked CAS anyway. UAV's are early as unpopular
The preceptions of bad guys on the ground are KEY! The enemy, if it is still the Taliban, will joyously celebrate TD6 I assure you. Marines and soldiers, not so much. Particularly as the KIA numbers rise.
Duty. Honour. Country.
Thank you for standing up to be counted.
Two Canadian soldiers and another from the NATO coalition in Afghanistan died Monday in a helicopter crash that may have been caused by mechanical failure or human error.
Does Afghanistan get dust storms like Iraq?
The Canadians were Master Cpl. Patrice Audet, 38, and Cpl. Martin Joannette, 25. Three other Canadian soldiers, whose names weren't disclosed in keeping with military policy, were injured. Two of them have already returned to work while the third one was in stable condition at the hospital at the Kandahar Airfield.
Let us wish for quick healing and little pain.
The home country of the third coalition soldier was not identified. The crash occurred at about 1:50 p.m. local time at an American forward operating base in Zabul province, about 80 kilometres northeast of Kandahar city, and was not related to insurgent activity, the military said. The Zabul base is outside Canada's main sphere of operations, but the crew was apparently on a transport mission.
The crash comes after the deaths of two other Canadian soldiers, one of whom died Friday following the explosion of a roadside bomb and another who succumbed Saturday to wounds sustained last month. "It has been an extremely difficult week here in Kandahar," Canadian commander Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance said early Tuesday. "We all are feeling a great sense of loss."
Cpl. Martin Joannette died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan that was not the result enemy fire, but may have been caused by mechanical failure or human error. Cpl. Martin Joannette died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan that was not the result enemy fire, but may have been caused by mechanical failure or human error.
The latest deaths bring to 124 the number of Canadian soldiers who have died as part of the Afghan mission since 2002.
[Quqnoos] Sixteen kidnapped de-miners were released Sunday night in Pakia province, Afghan Interior Ministry said. The Interior Ministry in a statement said police forces blocked all the routes out of the province in an extensive operation, launched late Saturday. "The operation prevented any possible chance for the kidnappers to smuggle the captive de-miners out of Paktia," the statement notes.
Local people and tribal elders supported the police operation to find out the de-miners who spent two nights in captivity, according to the MoI statement. The kidnappers have not been arrested yet, the statement further said.
No one claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid dismissed their involvement in the abduction.
The mine clearers, employed by the Mine Detection and Dog Centre (MDC), were seized by ten armed men on Saturday as they were clearing mines in a remote district of Pakia. MDC mine-clearance organisation is affiliated to the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre of Afghanistan (MACCA).
Twenty-two employees of the MDC, which has 1,800 staff working across the country, have been killed since 2001, mainly in areas where the Taliban still have influence.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[Quqnoos] At least 4 NATO and two Afghan troops were killed Monday in a roadside bomb in Kunduz province, officials said
A roadside bomb struck a vehicle of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Khan Abad district of the relatively stable Kunduz province, provincial police chief said. Two local children are reportedly wounded in the powerful blast that hit a joint ISAF-Afghan convoy, patrolling the district, about 25 km east of the provincial capital.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, in a phone interview from an undisclosed location, claimed responsibility for the bomb attack that according to him, 5 German troops were killed and two others were harmed.
Kunduz Police Chief, Brig Gen Abdul Razaq Yaqubi, said the blast took place in Char Toot village of Khan Abad, where presence of insurgents has been recently reported. The nationality of the foreign troops is not confirmed yet but a large number of German troops are leading ISAF's Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the northern Afghan province. A spokesman for the provincial government, Mahbubullah Sayedi said the four foreign victims were US trainers.
This article starring:
Zabihullah Mujahid
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Operation Iron Net? That sounds remarkably stiff, heavy, and ineffective. Perhaps it's more frightening in the original Pashtun.
The Taliban said on Monday they have launched a guerrilla operation to thwart a major assault by the newly-deployed US Marines on their Helmand strongholds. Operation Foladi Jal would teach the Marines "a lesson". Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from an unknown location.
The brave Lion of Islam phones it in from his secret hiding place, under his youngest wife's bed.
"You guys go ahead, I'll be there in a minute."
"Where you going, Mahmoud?"
Um .. I gotta make a phone call."
About 4,000 Marines poured into the southern province on Thursday in an operation called Khanjar (dagger) to tackle the Taliban in the region. "In response to Operation Khanjar by the invading forces, we have launched the operation," Ahmadi said. The operation would include improvised bomb explosions and "hit-and-run guerrilla attacks", Ahmadi said. "We will not engage them in front battles. We would rather hit them by mines and guerrilla attacks," he said.
Happy hunting, Marine Lions and Lionesses!
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Teaching Marines "a lesson" sounds like a real bad idea. I don't thinks theses guys can pass an IQ test.
#2
Spoken by someone who's never faced Marines in combat. I'm sure they'll do their best, and I'm sure the Marines will kill them like flies.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/07/2009 12:41 Comments ||
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#3
It's not an assault. It's a op aimed at attrition and wear-down.
The good thing is that there are a lot of 'lessons learned' from Iraq. The problems are that the Iraqis were a lot more sophisticated in some ways vis a vis IEDs, and the Taliban are using some tactics developed both indigenously and by Pakistanis and others.
[Quqnoos] A suicide bomber attacked Kandahar airfield Monday, killing 2 and wounding a dozen, including four Afghan soldiers The incident occurred at about 7 am on Monday morning at the front gate of Kandahar airport, approximately 30 km south-eastern of the provincial capital, Kandahar city, a top police official said. Health status of four of the wounded people is reported critical.
The area is cordoned off by US and Canadian troops, stationed in Kandahar province, to probe the car wreckage and the powerful blast, a witness said.
Brig Gen Safiullah Hakim, police chief in southern Afghan region further said the attack also damaged five other civilian vehicles parked nearby the blast scene. Quqnoos' Mohammad Masumi in Kandahar terms it the first-ever suicide attack on Kandahar airfield -- a crowded Afghan airport with a number of domestic flights a day due to the risky road journey to southern Afghanistan. International and Afghan troops guard the airfield in Kandahar, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.
A militants' Web Site, quoted a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who accepted tge Taliban involvement behind the attack on the airfield. The attack was carried out by a Taliban militant, Abdul Hassan, the spokesman further said in the article. The Taliban spokesman claims that 16 Afghan and foreign troops have been killed in the blast.
Afghan officials in Kandahar dismissed the claim.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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The deadliest in a recent spate of terror attacks in Algeria killed at least 43 people and injured another 38 Tuesday, when a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives outside a police academy while scores of new recruits lined up to register for training. The strike in the town of Boumerdès, about 22 miles east of Algiers, came just hours after reports that an ambush by Islamist extremists on Sunday killed 12 people in eastern Algeria. That assault followed two earlier attacks in August that left eight dead and over 50 injured. Though the extremist Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has only claimed responsibility for one of those massacres, experts fear they were all part of an escalating campaign of terror activity by the organization, which may be aiming to make the approaching holy month of Ramadan particularly bloody.
Algerian officials warned the early victim count in the strike in Boumerdès was a "preliminary estimate," meaning its record-setting death toll will likely rise in the coming days. But even the current toll from Tuesday's blast surpassed the impact of a double suicide bombing in Algiers last December, which killed 41, including 17 United Nations workers. It also outstripped the 33 mortalities in similar attacks on government and police buildings in central Algiers in April, 2007. Responsibility for both was eventually claimed by AQIM, which vowed upon taking the al Qaeda name in 2006 that it would intensify its jihad against the Algiers regime even as it widened attacks towards foreign enemies, notably France and the U.S.
French counter-terrorism officials take threats of exported violence to European soil seriously, but so far AQIM has waged its jihad largely within Algeria's borders. In July, for example, the group executed an attack targeting employees of a French company, killing one French engineer. A second blast detonated 30 minutes later killed a dozen Algerian medical and rescue workers who had flocked to the site (a technique the plot's authors took from international jihad's playbook).
The December strikes near U.N. offices in Algiers bore a similar Al Qaeda earmark, experts say: while targeting foreigners, it maximized the death toll by claiming as many people from the local Muslim population as possible. By contrast, while the eight people killed and 19 injured in the August 10 suicide car bombing in the coastal town of Zemmouri el Bahri were all Algerian, AQIM claimed responsibility for the attack by describing its victims as "the sons of France and the slaves of America". The message being that anyone not supporting the AQIM cause foreign or Muslim represent the same enemy.
Even before this month's crescendo of strikes sounded its loudest note Tuesday, French security officials aired concerns AQIM may be planning to again turn the Ramadan holy month, which starts September 1 this year, into a season of blood-letting as jihadists in Algeria and elsewhere have in the past. "Radicals feel that because they're waging holy war, there's actually something sanctified in killing foreign infidels and people they consider 'bad Muslims' during Islamic holidays," one French intelligence official told TIME prior to Tuesday's attack. "And since everyone who is not with them is an infidel or 'bad Muslim' to the extremists' mind, they see a perverse religious and terror logic to inflict as much death and injury as possible during Ramadan."
The recent spree of strikes have also been significant by brazenly attacking police and army forces, indicating AQIM fighters may now feel as well-organized and -armed as Algeria's security services. According to unconfirmed Algerian media reports, last Sunday 40 AQIM attacked a convoy of elite army and police units in eastern Algeria, killing 12 of its members including the region's security chief, Lieutenant Colonel Rahmouni Mohammed. Similarly, a suicide bomber took out a police station in the Kabyle town of Tizi Ouzou August 3; though no one was killed, 25 people were injured, including four officers.
"AQIM seems to have become more sophisticated and flexible in the kinds of terror attacks it conducts, and as a result seems to feel assured enough of success that it can now blend soft, civilian targets with direct assaults on the armed forces," the French intelligence official says. Meanwhile, another French counter-terrorism official reacted to Tuesday's strike by harking back to terrorist violence that spilled out of Algeria and into France in the 1990s by AQIM's predecessor, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). "It was only after the GIA reached the summit of its strengths in Algeria that it exported terrorism to France meaning if history is repeating itself, we may be at a very dangerous place."
Mali's army and suspected Al Qaeda militants fought two gun battles over the weekend that killed dozens and left about 20 soldiers missing in a remote desert region, military sources said.
A Malian military patrol clashed with militants near Tessalit, in Mali's north, on Friday and were ambushed early Saturday morning.
Ah, but neither clash nor "ambush" would have taken place had not Malian troops been out there, wherever there is. It's a little late to wish them happy hunting, but let us wish them continued success... although preferably with fewer missing troops going forward. On second thought, are we sure the soldiers did not intentionally go off with malice aforethought, wherever it is that they went?
Mali's army confirmed firefights took place but gave no details. The violence is the latest in a series of incidents in the vast desert region which has long hosted rebels and smugglers and now increasingly is being used by militants known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
"The army fought very deadly clashes with Islamists on July 3 and 4 northeast of (the northern town of) Timbuktu. After very heavy fighting, there were losses on both sides," the army said late on Sunday. The statement gave no details on the death toll. A military source said dozens had died in the two attacks and an army colonel was amongst the estimated 20 soldiers who went missing.
"We don't know if he is dead or has been taken hostage," the source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. The fighting is the third such incident since Mali's security forces stepped up operations against AQIM, which last month killed a British hostage.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A Yemeni court sentenced Monday seven Shiite rebels to death for their role in a series of gun battles against the security forces near the capital last year that left hundreds of people dead or wounded.
The court convicted the seven of "belonging to an armed gang in 2008 to carry out a collective criminal project." It sentenced seven other defendants to jail terms of between 12 and 15 years. "Death to America and death to Israel," the defendants cried out from the dock after the sentences were announced. What the hell'd we do? Those people are crazy.
What do Israel and America have to do with Yemini security forces?
They are all expected to appeal.
A total of 190 suspected rebels are being tried in batches over the deadly fighting with the security forces that raged in Bani Hoshaish, northeast of the capital Sanaa, between March and June last year. The rebels, whose stronghold is in Saada in the far northern mountains, want to restore the Zaidi imamate that was overthrown in a republican coup in 1962.
The insurgents are known as Huthis after their late commander, Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi, who was killed by the army in September 2004. Hussein was succeeded as field commander by his brother Abdul Malak.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The Yemini security forces defeated/captured rebels who were 'doing god's will,' so the leadership must be under the influence of CIA/Mossad mind control.
Also, "death to America/Israel" is a lot easier to memorize and pronounce than "death to the Bavarian Illuminati" or "death to the trilateral commission."
[Kyodo: Korea] The Security Council on Monday condemned North Korea for its weekend missile launches in defiance of previous U.N. resolutions that ban such activity. ""The members of the Security Council condemned and expressed grave concern at the launches, which constitute a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and pose a threat to regional and international security,"" council president Ambassador Ruhakana Rugunda of Uganda told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[ADN Kronos] A landmine exploded in southeastern Turkey on Monday killing four construction workers and injuring nine others. The state news agency, Anadolu, said a bomb struck a vehicle transporting the workers to a dam and roads under construction in the southeastern province of Sirnak, near the border with Iraq on Monday.
The news agency said that the vehicle struck the landmine which authorities said was planted by the separatist militants, the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).
The city of Sirnak has been at the centre of conflict between the Turkish military and the PKK.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[ADN Kronos] A United States trained Pakistani scientist accused of links to Al-Qaeda and shooting at FBI agents may be forced to appear in a New York court on Monday. Aafia Siddiqui may have to appear by video or in person in federal court in Manhattan at a hearing to decide if she is competent to stand trial, defence attorney Dawn Cardi said.
Siddiqui was believed to have been captured in Afghanistan and held at the US military base at Bagram, outside Kabul, before being transferred to the United States to stand trial. In August 2008, Siddiqui was charged in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York with assaulting and attempting to kill US personnel while in detention in Afghanistan. Siddiqui has reported seeing her children in her prison cell and has claimed she was strip-searched.
Prosecutors have accused Siddiqui of having ties to Al-Qaeda and that she grabbed a US army officer's M-4 rifle in Afghanistan, pointed it at an army captain and cried 'Allahu Akbar,' or 'God is great.' They said she fired at US soldiers and FBI agents before she was shot and wounded by an army officer.
A defence attorney has disputed that account and said the US government's claims were wrong.
Siddiqui, a specialist in neuroscience who trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, appeared in court twice after she was brought to the US last August but has refused to attend proceedings since that time. She's charged with attempted murder and assault.
US District Judge Richard Berman entered a not guilty plea for her. But the judge signed an order several days ago permitting authorities to take her to court against her will, Cardi said. "Her choice is not to come," Cardi said. "I don't want her traumatised any more than she has to be, being strip-searched and all."
Mental health professionals who have evaluated Siddiqui over the last year will be questioned by lawyers on both sides during the competency hearing. A trial is set for October 19.
Aafia Siddiqui refused to appear in a New York court on 4 September 2008, to protest against the humiliating treatment which she claims to have suffered and because of her physical, mental and emotional condition.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
She certainly has an impressive education for a mentally incompetant person with legal maneouvering savvy. Player. How about we shoot her full of tranqs and strap her on a gurney in a padded cell? Does that sound good?
#2
She has one thing going for her and her plea of mental incompetency - she's a muslim. That may be sufficient, but the judge should lock her up anyway. She is DEFINITELY a "menace to polite society". Actually, she's a menace to any society other than a muslim one - and possibly even there.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/07/2009 17:29 Comments ||
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ISLAMABAD -- Suspected U.S. missiles slammed into a training camp ran by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on Tuesday, killing at least 12 militants in the latest in a flurry of strikes against him and his followers, intelligence officials said.
The attack took place in the Makeen area of South Waziristan close to the Afghan border, four officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The missiles were believed launched by unmanned American planes.
"Our initial reports from agents in the field say at least 12 to 14 Taliban have died in today's American missile attack," said one official, adding several militants were also wounded. Mehsud was not among the victims, the officers said.
The United States has launched more than 40 missile strikes against targets in the border area since last August.
Tuesday was the fourth in two weeks against Mehsud and his followers in his stronghold of South Waziristan.
Pakistan's army is deploying troops in South Waziristan and launching regular air strikes of its own to try and kill or capture Mehsud, who is blamed for organizing many of the bloodiest suicide attacks in Pakistan over the last few years.
Washington does not directly acknowledge being responsible for launching the missiles, which kill civilians as well as militants and contribute to anti-U.S. sentiment in Pakistan.
Islamabad officially protests the strikes as violations of its sovereignty, but most experts believe the government secretly endorses them and likely provides the United States with intelligence on possible targets.
[Geo News] The residence of banned Tehreek-e-Taliban (TT) commander by the name Nazeer Afridi was reportedly bombed by security forces here in the Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency on Monday, Geo news reported. Meanwhile, the clashes between banned religious outfits led to deaths of seven militants, sources claimed adding that security forces continued shelling suspected militants' hideouts on Monday. The bombing resulted in the destruction of the residences of Taliban leader Nazeer Afridi and his paternal uncle's amid fresh operation launched by security forces meanwhile, both the commanders received injuries, sources maintained. According to FC sources, security forces backed by choppers shelled many militants' hideouts in tehsil Landi Kotal, leaving those completely perished.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Looks like another drone strike tonite, about a dozen Talibs carbon neutral.
Twenty-five explosive-laden vehicles have reportedly entered various major cities of the country, as the intelligence services launched search operations across all four provinces, a private TV channel reported on Monday.
According to the channel, the vehicles could target sensitive government installments and other important buildings.
The channel cited a notification issued by the Interior Ministry stating that suicide bombers along with the vehicles had entered Peshawar, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi.
The ministry ordered provincial authorities to immediately conduct search operations and impound the vehicles before any terrorist incident took place. The channel said the explosive-laden vehicles included a Shehzore pick-up van, an ambulance, a blue Pajero and seven Toyota Corollas.
The NWFP inspector general has ordered the provincial police to thoroughly check every vehicle entering or exiting Peshawar that matched the given description. Also, swiftly acting upon the IG's directive, Peshawar police seized two explosive-laden vehicles from Budhbeer area of the provincial capital and a jeep from Lakki Marwat loaded with explosives.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
How is it they always know the count ahead of time but don't seem to be able to get the perps until it's too late?
#5
3dc: probably a heads-up from somebody involved in the VBIED factory - either someone getting a head-count out of the garage, or who handed over a vehicle-purchase list, or something else like that?
I'd guess that somebody busted a chop-shop and found way more than he was expecting.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/07/2009 14:23 Comments ||
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#6
I'm soooo envious---why doesn't Paleos blow each other up?!
They shoot one another in the feet instead, g(g)romgoru. Some subsequently die because they refuse to seek medical attention in Israel.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Monday said security forces killed at least 25 Taliban and arrested another four in various raids in Swat, Buner and North Waziristan Agency.
Fourteen Taliban were killed during a search operation in Mingora city's Tiligram area, the ISPR said. "The security forces engaged terrorists at Tiligram and killed 14 in a gun battle and recovered a large cache of arms and explosives, including four IEDs, a 14.5 gun barrel and 26 detonators," it said.
The ISPR said the forces also recovered 50 mules laden with arms and ammunition, medicines and food rations during a search operation in the Banjut area. Troops also apprehended a number of terrorists, it added.
The ISPR said a soldier was injured in an IED blast during a search operation in Swat's Thana area.
During a search operation in Tahirabad area of Mingora, the troops recovered surgical equipment, nine hand grenades and office furniture from the house of a suspected terrorist.
It said the forces secured Tighak Banda and Gakhe Banda areas, as two soldiers were injured in an exchange of fire with the terrorists at Pir Patai bridge.
The ISPR said the security forces impounded a vehicle at Kharkhanai Chowk in Dir and recovered 2,156 rounds of small machinegun, 9,728 rounds of light machine gun, seven hand grenades and eight small machinegun magazines.
Meanwhile, an IED planted by terrorists exploded near a vehicle parked at village Sarati Sherangal in Upper Dir, killing a child and injuring 10 persons.
Bajaur: Security forces on Monday also nsified attacks on the Taliban in Bajaur Agency, killing four of them and injuring six others in the region's Charmang tehsil.
The forces also destroyed numerous Taliban hideouts in Charmang, defused several remote-controlled bombs, arrested 15 suspects and recovered missiles from their possession.
Officials in North Waziristan Agency told AFP that seven Taliban had been killed and 12 injured when fighter jets targeted terrorists' hideouts in the area.
"Seven militants were killed and 12 injured when jet fighter planes pounded Taliban hideouts at Madda Khel and Wuchabibi," an official based in agency's main town Miranshah told AFP.
A military source in the region confirmed the attacks and death toll.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I wish I felt more secure about those numbers...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/07/2009 17:36 Comments ||
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Five people including a prayer leader and two brothers were killed in separate incidents of sectarian violence in Dera Ismail Khan, a private TV channel reported on Monday. According to police, unidentified people shot dead a Shia rickshaw driver in Gali Bagh Wali. He was identified as Bakht Wadha, a resident of Dinpur village, Online reported. Meanwhile, two Shia brothers were killed when unidentified men on a motorbike fired at them. The police said the brothers were at their shop on Grid Station Road. They were identified as Azmat Ali and Muhammad Ali. Also, two people, including a prayer leader, Amanullah, were killed when unidentified men opened fire on four people sitting at a shop near Wanda Mouchian Wala area. The other two were injured and rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital. The channel said traders shut down their businesses in the city following the incidents.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Sindh police arrested an activist of the banned outfit Jesh-e-Mohammad Pakistan from Hyderabad, on Monday. Abid Hussain was an absconder in the assassination case of a Hindu businessman Gardesh Kumar since 2007. CID SP Mazhar Mashwani told Daily Times after killing Kumar, the culprit had managed to flee during an encounter with the police during a raid in Hyderabad in 2007. Since then, he went into hiding, while the police arrested his father and brother, who pointed out the location where Kumar's body was buried. The CID official said his police team raided a house located in Kotri area following a tip-off, and arrested Hussain.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] At least fourteen people have been injured in a fresh wave of bomb attacks which has plagued Iraq's third largest city, Mosul.
The fourteen were wounded on Monday as a car bomb attack targeted a police vehicle patrol at Wadi Hajar district in the southern part of the city. Three policemen were among the wounded, according to a security source speaking on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, a traffic officer was injured on Monday, when unidentified armed men opened fire on him in Mosul. A local police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Voices of Iraq news agency that Brigadier Safaaldin Mahmoud from Nineveh's traffic police department was wounded while on duty at al-Darkziya district in the eastern part of the disrupted northern Iraqi city.
Elsewhere on Monday, a civilian was killed when gunmen shot him dead in Tamouz district in western Mosul. The assailants fled the scene after the fatal incident, witnesses said.
Mosul and its surrounding areas remain the scenes of constant bombings and havens for the al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in the war-wracked Iraq. Mosul, the capital city of Iraq's Nineveh province, is situated some 396 km (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
Also on Monday, Iraqi security forces claimed that they had arrested two prominent al-Qaeda members during a raid on several houses in al-Suweira district some 20 km (13 miles) south of Kut -- which is in the southern Iraqi province of Wasit bordering Iran.
Later in the day, unknown gunmen attacked a US patrol vehicle in east of Dalouiya, in Salah al-Din province. There have been no reports of casualties. "Unknown armed men fired a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) on a US patrol vehicle in al-Mashrouaa village, east of Dalouiya," a source told Voices of Iraq news agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces on Monday arrested two al-Qaeda-in-Iraq leaders in northern Wassit province, according to a local security source. "On Monday, forces from the information department and the National Investigations arrested Majeed Kadhem Hussein al-Ajeili and Fadel Hussein Jassem al-Ajeili, two prominent leaders in the terrorist al-Qaeda network, during a raid on several houses in al-Suweira district (135 km north of Kut)," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "The arrests were made in light of arrest warrants issued in accordance with Article IV of the Terrorism Law...," the source noted.
Those arrested have been involved in armed operations against civilians and Iraqi security forces, the source explained.
Kut, the capital city of Wassit province, lies 180 southeast of Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Eight persons on Monday were injured when a booby-trapped car exploded in Mosul city, according to a local police source. "Today, a car bomb detonated in Wadi Hajar area, southern Mosul, wounding eight persons," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The blast did not target security personnel, the source noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The French Foreign Ministry says it has summoned the Iranian ambassador over the arrest of a French academic on espionage charges.
The ministry did not disclose the woman's name but said that it had called for the Iranian envoy on Monday to demand her release, AP reported. Paris claims that the woman was arrested last week as she was about to leave Iran after spending five months in the country studying. The ministry claimed that the French envoy in Tehran had also objected to the woman's detention and the charges brought against her.
In a Monday evening interview with France Info radio, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, also commented on the issue, claiming that the charges were "absurd".
"The spying charges put forward by the Iranian authorities do not pass the test," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday, AFP reported. The ministry says it is in close contact with the family of the detained woman.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Does the lady have dual citizenship? That so often seems to be the situation in these cases.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian police announced Sunday the release of an Iranian employee of the British embassy even as the judiciary head called for the prosecution of people working for anti-government satellite TV channels and websites.
The comment followed a statement by a pro-reform clerical group Saturday protesting the disputed presidential June 12 election and the new government as "illegitimate" and blasting the official electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council.
" Most of the detainees have been or are being either released on bail or simply freed "
Esmail Moghaddam, Iranian policeman
Iran's chief of police said on Sunday authorities have released most of the people detained in the post-election violence that rocked Tehran after official results gave hardliner incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second four-year term.
Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said of the 1,032 people arrested, "two-thirds have been freed," the official IRNA news agency reported. "Most of the detainees have been or are being either released on bail or simply freed," he said, although the information could not be independently verified because foreign media are largely banned from reporting in Iran.
They were arrested during weeks of violent street protests in support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in which at least 20 people were killed in the worst crisis to hit the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution.
British embassy staff to be released
Iran is also set to release Sunday the eighth of nine British embassy staff arrested on accusations stirring trouble and interfering in Iranian internal affairs. "There have been developments overnight in respect of the eighth person who had been arrested," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Sunday adding that "the good news is that...the eighth person would indeed be released today [and] that the papers have been signed and that there would not be a court process or charges."
Unofficial TV channels
Meanwhile, the head of Iran's judiciary called for the prosecution of people working for increasingly influential anti-establishment satellite TV channels and websites. "The daily growth of anti-regime satellite channels and ... websites needs serious measures to confront this phenomenon," state television quoted a circular issued by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi as saying.
For the first time in Iran, foreign-based satellite TV channels and blogs played a significant role in providing news and commentary about the election, especially following a ban on foreign media. Iran has said this amounts to interference in its internal affairs.
Mousavi and reformist cleric Mehdi Karoubi said the government wants to force Iranians to rely on state-run media, which they say favor Ahmadinejad.
Both men issued statements on their websites saying Ahmadinejad's new government would be "illegitimate" -- even though Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's ultimate arbiter, has upheld the result and thrown his weight behind the president.
Split in the ranks
" How can one accept the legitimacy of the election just because the Guardian Council says so? Can one say that the government born out of the infringements is a legitimate one "
Assembly of Qom statement
In a controversial development, the pro-reform Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers blasted Saturday the Guardians Council, which formally endorsed Ahmadinejad's re-election.
The independent assembly said the unelected electoral watchdog no longer had the "right to judge in this case as some of its members have lost their impartial image in the eyes of the public," its first public stance on the disputed elections. "How can one accept the legitimacy of the election just because the Guardian Council says so? Can one say that the government born out of the infringements is a legitimate one," it said, adding that it had not paid adequate attention to the complaints filed by the defeated candidates.
Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, met with the families of detainees arrested in the aftermath of post-election protests and admitted that the unrest in the country has caused "bitterness," but denied there was a split at the top of Iran's establishment. "The election scene was a competition within the system and should not be considered by some as a power struggle or crack in the system," he was quoted as saying in ISNA news agency.
Rafsanjani added that the current crises will be wisely solved and that the regime has to be kept intact on the long run. He also met with the families of the detained.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2009 00:00 ||
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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.
When the soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division penetrated the insurgent-ridden Tangi Valley in the heart of Wardak Province, they braved rockets and roadside bombs. They succeeded in erecting a small outpost overlooking the lush, fertile dale in what is one of the most dangerous areas in the province. 
Remarkably, in the face of the resistance, the Marines, who have a reputation as hard chargers, rarely fired back. They wanted to, but their command had warned the young Marines that even one civilian casualty could negate the No. 1 objective of this operation -- winning the trust and respect of the farmers of the Helmand River Valley. 
[Quqnoos] At least 4 NATO and two Afghan troops were killed Monday in a roadside bomb in Kunduz province, officials said
[Quqnoos] A suicide bomber attacked Kandahar airfield Monday, killing 2 and wounding a dozen, including four Afghan soldiers The incident occurred at about 7 am on Monday morning at the front gate of Kandahar airport, approximately 30 km south-eastern of the provincial capital, Kandahar city, a top police official said. Health status of four of the wounded people is reported critical.
The deadliest in a recent spate of terror attacks in Algeria killed at least 43 people and injured another 38 Tuesday, when a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives outside a police academy while scores of new recruits lined up to register for training. The strike in the town of Boumerdès, about 22 miles east of Algiers, came just hours after reports that an ambush by Islamist extremists on Sunday killed 12 people in eastern Algeria. That assault followed two earlier attacks in August that left eight dead and over 50 injured. Though the extremist Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has only claimed responsibility for one of those massacres, experts fear they were all part of an escalating campaign of terror activity by the organization, which may be aiming to make the approaching holy month of Ramadan particularly bloody. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Yemeni court sentenced Monday seven Shiite rebels to death for their role in a series of gun battles against the security forces near the capital last year that left hundreds of people dead or wounded.
[ADN Kronos] A landmine exploded in southeastern Turkey on Monday killing four construction workers and injuring nine others. The state news agency, Anadolu, said a bomb struck a vehicle transporting the workers to a dam and roads under construction in the southeastern province of Sirnak, near the border with Iraq on Monday.
[ADN Kronos] A United States trained Pakistani scientist accused of links to Al-Qaeda and shooting at FBI agents may be forced to appear in a New York court on Monday. Aafia Siddiqui may have to appear by video or in person in federal court in Manhattan at a hearing to decide if she is competent to stand trial, defence attorney Dawn Cardi said.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Monday said security forces killed at least 25 Taliban and arrested another four in various raids in Swat, Buner and North Waziristan Agency.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The French Foreign Ministry says it has summoned the Iranian ambassador over the arrest of a French academic on espionage charges. 
