Hi there, !
Today Sat 12/12/2009 Fri 12/11/2009 Thu 12/10/2009 Wed 12/09/2009 Tue 12/08/2009 Mon 12/07/2009 Sun 12/06/2009 Archives
Rantburg
531715 articles and 1856004 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 77 articles and 218 comments as of 15:31.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Baghdad bomb attacks kill 127, wound 450
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 [] 
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [] 
11 00:00 Boss Snomotle8280 [] 
0 [] 
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [] 
5 00:00 GolfBravoUSMC [] 
0 [] 
3 00:00 Old Patriot [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [1] 
1 00:00 Frank G [] 
0 [1] 
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [] 
0 [] 
8 00:00 JosephMendiola [] 
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [2] 
0 [] 
3 00:00 USN, Ret. [] 
2 00:00 lotp [] 
1 00:00 newc [] 
Page 2: WoT Background
7 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
0 []
1 00:00 European Conservative []
3 00:00 Baba Tutu []
2 00:00 Lumpy Elmoluck5091 []
2 00:00 Besoeker []
2 00:00 Redneck Jim []
0 []
5 00:00 European Conservative []
1 00:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain []
3 00:00 JosephMendiola []
8 00:00 JosephMendiola []
1 00:00 g(r)omgoru [2]
5 00:00 Rambler in Virginia []
5 00:00 Frank G []
3 00:00 Redneck Jim []
1 00:00 JosephMendiola []
6 00:00 JosephMendiola []
0 []
0 []
Page 3: Non-WoT
3 00:00 KBK []
2 00:00 eLarson [1]
8 00:00 JosephMendiola []
5 00:00 ryuge []
5 00:00 Iblis [1]
4 00:00 USN, Ret. []
3 00:00 JosephMendiola []
7 00:00 Bright Pebbles []
8 00:00 Scooter McGruder []
0 []
5 00:00 European Conservative []
0 []
8 00:00 European Conservative []
2 00:00 JosephMendiola [1]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola []
0 []
Page 4: Opinion
0 [1]
3 00:00 Frank G []
1 00:00 Angie Schultz []
4 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 []
1 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 []
1 00:00 lord garth []
6 00:00 DMFD []
0 []
3 00:00 JosephMendiola []
Page 6: Politix
3 00:00 Bright Pebbles []
5 00:00 Pappy [1]
0 []
2 00:00 tipover []
1 00:00 Uncle Phester []
3 00:00 Lumpy Elmoluck5091 []
6 00:00 Uncle Phester []
11 00:00 JohnQC []
5 00:00 Procopius2k []
3 00:00 Glenmore []
1 00:00 armyguy []
Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


#2  Amazing beauties.
Posted by: Icerigger || 12/09/2009 7:08 Comments || Top||

#3  re: #4 Shiver me timbers, matey!!!!!
Posted by: AlanC || 12/09/2009 7:25 Comments || Top||

#4  #1 picture above will not display.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/09/2009 11:32 Comments || Top||

#5  RN Jim



Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/09/2009 12:19 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Al Shabab attacks Mosque - Kill 7 (Somalia)
Heavily armed Al-Shabaab militants attacked a mosque in the Somali town of Basra between Afgooye and Balcad, northwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing seven people and injuring 13 others.

According witnesses, the guerrillas forced their way into the mosque where celebrating people gathered to commemorate a ritual but met with force, leading to all out violence.

Sheikh Abdirahman Hassan Hussein, an Al-Shabaab official in Lower Shabelle confirmed the attack at the mosque, claiming that the people were 'apostates' who gathered to do un-Islamic ritual.
Possibly veneration of a Sufi 'saint' or reading of devotional poetry or maybe using the wrong color scheme on their prayer rugs.
Posted by: lord garth || 12/09/2009 08:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Senior southern figures arrested as Sudan bans rally
[Asharq al-Aswat] Riot police arrested three senior members of south Sudan's main political party and more than 100 supporters who demonstrated around Sudan's parliament on Monday despite an official ban, witnesses and officials said. The three men were later released and two -- the Sudan People's Liberation Movement's (SPLM) Secretary General Pagan Amum and his deputy Yasir Arman -- received a hero's welcome at their party's headquarters in downtown Khartoum, according to a Reuters witness.

The SPLM and opposition parties had called the rally to demand democratic reforms ahead of next year's elections in a rare public challenge to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's dominant northern National Congress Party (NCP). The SPLM is junior partner in the national coalition government formed by a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of civil war between Sudan's north and south.

Sudanese authorities announced on Sunday that the rally was banned.

Arman was detained after scuffling with police early on Monday outside the parliament, said a Reuters witness. The SPLM later said police also arrested Amum and Sudan's state interior minister Abbas Juma, an SPLM member.

Hundreds more banner-waving supporters gathered in the area and other parts of Khartoum's Omdurman suburb after the arrests and were dispersed by police using tear gas.

"The situation is brutal. More than 100 SPLM members have been arrested and many more other protesters have been detained," SPLM spokeswoman Keji Roman told Reuters.

Senior NCP official Ibrahim Ghandour said the protest had not been banned by his party, but by Sudan's Interior Ministry which declared it illegal because organisers had failed to apply for permission to hold the event. "The National Congress Party is not against democratic action including protests and rallies," he told Reuters.

Security services had also decided to stop the rally because of "information received ... on the intent of the circles organising of the demonstration to perpetrate anarchy and to use molotov bombs," NCP official Mandour el-Mahadi told Sudan's state Suna news agency.

SPLM leader and south Sudan's President Salva Kiir said the arrests were "provocative and unjustified" in a statement.

Senior SPLM official Anne Itto said the news sparked anger in the south, where attackers set fire to the NCP's headquarters in Wau, the capital of Western Bahr el Ghazal state. She had no reports of injuries.

An official in the opposition Umma party had said on Sunday the ban showed the NCP was not serious about letting dissenting voices take part in elections, scheduled for April 2010. The oil-producing country is to hold its first multi-party polls in 24 years under the 2005 peace deal that created the SPLM-NCP coalition government.

Relations between the former foes have stayed tense and both have accused each other of failing to implement the deal, which guarantees the south a referendum on independence in 2011. Two million people were killed and 4 million fled their homes between 1983 and 2005 as Sudan's north and south battled over differences of ideology, ethnicity and religion.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan

#1  Better let them go, They are the new Government of South Sudan.
Posted by: newc || 12/09/2009 18:38 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Al-Qaeda claims Mali, Mauritania kidnappings
[Maghrebia] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb on Tuesday (December 8th) claimed responsibility for the recent kidnappings of three Spanish aid workers in Mauritania and a Frenchman in Mali, local and international press reported.

"France and Spain will be informed later" of the ransom demands, an al-Qaeda spokesman self-identified as Saleh Abu Mohammad said on a tape provided to Al Jazeera.

The Frenchman was abducted from a northern Mali hotel on November 25th. The three Spanish nationals, including one woman, were kidnapped on November 29th by armed terrorists while travelling in a solidarity caravan along the Nouadhibou-Nouakchott road.

During Friday prayers last week, the imam of the Nouakchott mosque spoke against the kidnappers, saying that "those who violate the peace in the land of Islam and cause trouble for Muslims cannot be called Muslims ".
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Arabia
Sa'ada siege 'continues unabated' despite intl calls
The Shia Houthi fighters maintain the siege imposed by Sana'a government on the rugged northern Sa'ada province continues unabated, leaving the residents of the war-torn province bordering Saudi Arabia utterly devastated.

Houthi fighters say the government has imposed a siege on the northern city of Sa'ada, preventing people from leaving the city for the past three months.

They went on to add that the true extent of the calamity in both Sa'ada City and its governorate is a gross underestimation, due to logistical constraints placed on relief agencies by the fighting. This has accordingly left thousands of civilians on the brink of death due to acute malnutrition, disease, and impoverishment.

The development comes as Sana'a has refused to heed UN concerns over the humanitarian situation in the war-ravaged region.

Joe Stork, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, says, "To date, the Yemeni government has not responded to calls by the UN Secretary-General and UN agencies for the establishment of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to safely flee the conflict zone and to guarantee agencies safe passage to reach civilians, including the displaced, who remain."

Giancarlo Cirri, the World Food Program's representative in Yemen, meanwhile screened children in Sa'ada City and the surrounding Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. He found that 4.5 percent of the children in those camps suffered severe malnourishment and nearly 13 percent moderate malnourishment. He reported that, "The nutrition situation in the city was even more serious, with 12.6 percent of children severely malnourished and 27.2 percent moderately malnourished."

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 50,000 Yemeni civilians have been displaced since August alone, bringing the total number of internally displaced people from the northern governorates of Yemen (Sa'ada, Amran, al-Jawf and Hajjah) to 150,000. By UNICEF's count, one-half of them are children.

The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. The conflict intensified in August when Yemen's army launched Operation Scorched Earth against Sa'ada.

The Houthis accuse the Yemeni government of violation of their civil rights, political, economic and religious marginalization as well as of large-scale corruption.

The Saudi air force has further complicated the conflict during the past month by launching its own operations against the Shia resistance fighters.

The Houthi fighters say that Riyadh has been allowing Yemeni government troops to pound their positions and Saudi forces strike Yemeni village and indiscriminately target civilians there. According to the fighters, Saudis are using toxic materials including white phosphorous bombs against civilians in north Yemen.

Human Rights Watch, in a letter to UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes prior to his visit to Yemen in November, had implored him to call on Riyadh to immediately cease its deportation of Yemeni refugees, fleeing the conflict zone and seeking safety in Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Houthi fighters say that Riyadh has been allowing Yemeni government troops to pound their positions and Saudi forces strike Yemeni village and indiscriminately target civilians there. According to the fighters, Saudis are using toxic materials including white phosphorous bombs against civilians in north Yemen.

Paging Mr Goldstone (I wonder if his coworkers call him "Goldstein" behind his back).
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/09/2009 4:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Joe Stork again. Feh.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/09/2009 8:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Seems the Yemenis have taken a page from the Sri Lanka playbook, and are telling the UN to FOAD. The UN is being seen in more and more nations as a serial troublemaker and interfering pest, rather than a partner in finding a solution to problems. Many nations are also discovering that the UN not only isn't interested in solving problems, but is willing to senselessly prolong them to provide justification for UN action. Better to do housecleaning on your own than hiring a maid that's dirtier than you are.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/09/2009 16:36 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
10 wounded in cop-outlaw gunfight
[Bangla Daily Star] At least 10 people including three policemen were injured in a gunfight between police and the members of Janajuddha, a faction of outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party, at Gurpipul Jojaipara in Tarash upazila yesterday.

Police also arrested two members of the outlawed party and recovered a shotgun, looted from Bamihal police outpost in Natore district on December 12, 2007, 10 bullets and some documents after exchanging around 20 rounds of bullet.

The injured were admitted to the upazila health complex and Sadar hospital. Of them, the condition of bullet-hit sub-inspectors Golam Kibria and Amirul Islam and constable Abul Kalam Azad alias Kabir was stated to be critical, hospital sources said.

A Tarash police raided the house of Purna Chandra in the village around 11:00am following information that a gang of Janajuddha was holding a secret meeting there.

Sensing presence of the law enforcers, the outlawed party cadres opened fire on them. Police retaliated it that led to an hour-long gunfight, leaving 10 people including the policemen and villagers injured.

During the shootout, police caught two members of the outlawed party but others managed to flee. Later, they recovered the gun and bullets.

The arrestees are Alamin Sheikh, 35, son of late Mozibor Rahman of Matianchara village in Gabtoli upazila of Bogra district and Belal Hossain, 22, son of Rahim Ahmed of Setabganj village in Dinajpur district.

Both are the accused of a number of criminal cases, including Bamihal police outpost attack, police killing and arms looting case.

Police Super Mosharaf Hossain said security has been beefed up to avert any untoward incident.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Must be an exceptionally poor upazila. The bandits there can't manage even ONE shutter gun.
Posted by: Rivrdog || 12/09/2009 3:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Three police officers wounded, two commies arrested. That's not good. Those police need to spend some more time at the firing range. The article's author needs to go back to high school and start over in his/her journalism classes. There is no mention of who the other five (or seven) wounded are.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/09/2009 16:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Wadda ya expect for an encounter that took place in the middle of the day?? They was all kinds of peoples around to interfere with spidey sense and stuff.......
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 12/09/2009 23:28 Comments || Top||


Bagerhat bad boy one with the ages
[Bangla Daily Star] A leader of Janajuddha faction of outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party was killed in a "shootout" between police and his cohorts at Brahmandia village of Fakirhat upazila in Bagerhat early yesterday.

He was identified as Sheikh Murad, 32.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team of Fakirhat Police Station raided Brahmandia Government Primary School area around 5:00am as outlaws were holding a meeting there, police said. Sensing the presence of the law enforcers, the outlaws opened fire on police personnel.

Murad came in the line of fire as the police fired back on the outlaws that left him dead on the spot.

The gunfight lasted for about 45 minutes, a witness said.

ASI Abdul Aziz, constables Waziar Rahman and Fazlul Huq sustained bullet injuries during the shootout.

Two shutter guns, 21 bullets and seven bullet caps were recovered from the scene after the incident.

Murad, who was on the run, was sentenced to death in connection with the murder of eminent shrimp exporter and Fakirhat upazila Awami League leader SM Farhad Hossain. He was also accused in seven other cases including three for murders.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  seven bullet caps?
What are they?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/09/2009 11:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Brass?
Posted by: lotp || 12/09/2009 17:30 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Kimmie 'Has Secret Underground Escape Route'
Because all the people of Nork-land love him, you know ...
Kim Jong-il has a network of secret tunnels as an escape route in case of emergency, according to a prominent defector. Hwang Jang-Yop (86), a former secretary of the North Korean Workers Party, on Sunday told the Seoul-based Free North Korea Radio run by a group of defectors, "About 300 m below ground in Pyongyang, there exists a second underground world which is different from the subway level."

The tunnels stretch for some 40 to 50 km around Pyongyang linking to Nampo and Sunchon, Hwang said.

"The chief security guard for the subway construction site came and invited me to the site, asking me to mediate in a scuffle between soldiers and college students," Hwang said. "After I went down into the subway, I found another tunnel further down below." He said there are countless such secret tunnels and underground facilities in Pyongyang. Hwang is a former president of Kim Il Sung University.

He said there are clean spring water and green grass in one tunnel that leads to Mt. Jamo in Sunchon, about 40 km from Pyongyang. Another tunnel extends to Yongwon near Mt. Myohyang, about 50 km from Pyongyang.
Spring water and grass! Think of how many North Koreans could be fed by that ...
Yet another links the Mt. Cholbong recreation center in Samsok District in Pyongyang to the port of Nampo, which would allow leaders to escape to China in an emergency, he said.

"North Korea started building the tunnels right after the armistice" that halted the Korean War, Hwang said. "They were so elaborately built that a visiting Soviet military delegation marveled at them."

Pyongyang also has a straightforward subway 100-150 m-deep that opened in 1973. It is touted to foreign visitors as a tourist attraction but could be converted into a huge underground bunker in time of war.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WARNING VERY BAD LANGUAGE
Posted by: Jeager Panda5130 || 12/09/2009 12:36 Comments || Top||

#2  OK, so he's got an escape tunnel.

Does he also have a self-destruct?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/09/2009 17:17 Comments || Top||

#3  D *** NG IT, WMF + SINA Chin mil blogs had old or recent Artics on how KIMMIE + Family had highly paid, loyalist elite DPRK Army units in charge of protectng both the NOKOR Borders wid China, + their escape routes.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/09/2009 18:41 Comments || Top||


Europe
Five suspect terrorist arrests at junk-science summit
Danish police arrested three men and two women on the second day of the UN climate talks here, a police statement said.

An American, a Dane of Moroccan origin and a stateless Palestinian were detained after they were stopped in a car a few kilometres from the talks' venue by a police patrol, it said.

Questioning of the three men led to the further arrest of two women at two other addresses, they said.

The names of the five and other details were not given.
Posted by: tipper || 12/09/2009 03:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Update: Fingerprints reveal American not the same as one on wanted list. Bomb squad finds nothing in vehicle.

Suspects released.
Posted by: tipper || 12/09/2009 3:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Wannabe-terrorists on therir way to the wannabe-scientists summit.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/09/2009 5:30 Comments || Top||

#3  What's an American doing hanging around with a Moroccan and Palestinian in Denmark? That's what I want to know.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 12/09/2009 7:05 Comments || Top||

#4  So Islamics hate globle warming...
Posted by: Icerigger || 12/09/2009 7:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Methinks 'Islamics' rather LOVE lots of TV cameras and reporters.

Even a half-assed terror incident at this thing would get outsized coverage. I'm sure the Danes and EuroPol are will aware of this- thus the hair-trigger detention. Good job, IMO.
Posted by: Free Radical || 12/09/2009 7:51 Comments || Top||

#6  No mention made of the cameras, sketch pads, Rolatape measuring wheel, etc?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/09/2009 8:00 Comments || Top||

#7  Probably a recce probe. This means a microscope on their past activities, and at least a three week surveillance in the future.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/09/2009 8:14 Comments || Top||

#8  I thought maybe someone woke up and arrested the global warming terrorists who are terrorizing the rest of us with their cockamie science.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/09/2009 8:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Indeed John. The real threats are INSIDE the Bella Center.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/09/2009 8:19 Comments || Top||

#10  A non-story, but plus-one for the headline.
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia || 12/09/2009 15:27 Comments || Top||

#11  They were easy to spot by the police. They were the only ones not in a gas-guslin limo.
Posted by: Boss Snomotle8280 || 12/09/2009 17:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Terror Suspect Failed a Test
Answers to Airport Inspector's Questions in August Led to Arrest in '08 Mumbai Case

Terror suspect David Headley was questioned by an airport inspector in August and deceptive answers about his travels abroad helped officials begin to unravel Mr. Headley's alleged double life. The 49-year-old Chicago man was charged this week for helping plot the terror attack in Mumbai a year ago that killed 166 people.

Federal authorities, already suspicious of him, used his return to the U.S. this summer as an opportunity, according to officials. A border inspector asked Mr. Headley about his overseas travel, according to court records and people familiar with the case. Mr. Headley said he was working for a company called First World Immigration Service. First World is a business that allegedly provided Mr. Headley with cover as he traveled to scout terrorist targets for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group responsible for the November 2008 assault in Mumbai, according to the federal charges.

Agents searched Mr. Headley's luggage and found it "contained no papers or other documents relating to such a business," according to court documents. They also searched tax records and found no record of income paid to Mr. Headley by the company, court records show. U.S. officials said Tuesday the questioning at the airport gave a significant boost to the investigation.

Authorities said little more about the airport interview, including where it happened or why they had become suspicious of Mr. Headley. But court records showed that federal surveillance of Mr. Headley, who is an American, accelerated afterward.

Mr. Headley's case is the most potent example of a U.S. born radical. Law enforcement and terrorism specialists said Lashkar's alleged deployment of Mr. Headley underscored the usefulness of recruits with U.S. passports in terror plots. Mr. Headley traveled to India and Pakistan over nearly two years to videotape targets and brief his co-conspirators in the Mumbai attacks, according to the federal charges.

Westerners have largely played supporting roles in terror activities, but Mr. Headley's ability to travel freely on a U.S. passport to Pakistan, India and Denmark gave him high value, a U.S. law enforcement official said. "It's exactly the way you'd think al Qaeda would want to use operatives," said Evan Kohlmann, who has testified on Lashkar as an expert witness in U.S. and British courts.

Under direction from the Pakistani terror group, Mr. Headley appears to have been a skilled operative leading a carefully cultivated double life. He posed as the representative of the global immigration firm on more than a dozen international missions, including to scout potential attacks in India and Europe. Mr. Headley's cellphone was registered to a dead man, as was his Chicago apartment, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006 to further his cover, according to the FBI.

Pakistan-based Lashkar has traditionally been focused on the Kashmir region, which Pakistan and India have fought over for decades. But U.S. counterterrorism officials now believe the group's ambitions are global. "There's little question that [Lashkar] would like to extend its reach beyond areas where it has operated in the past," said one U.S. counterterrorism official. "The group has connections to other militants who have shown interest in conducting attacks throughout the region and in the West."

Mr. Headley's alleged role in the Mumbai attack represents a significant expansion of Lashkar's use of Westerners, said Evan Kohlmann, who has testified on the group as an expert witness in U.S. and British courts.

There are pockets of Lashkar supporters in the U.S., including San Diego and Northern Virginia, as well as cities in Florida and in the Northeast, say current and former counterterrorism officials. Two Georgia men were convicted earlier this year of providing material support to Lashkar and plotting terror attacks in the U.S., as well as meeting with members of a Canadian terrorist cell. The men said they sought to work under Lashkar because it was easier to "climb the ladder" to another terrorist group, said Mr. Kohlmann, who assisted law enforcement on the case.

Christopher Paul, a bomb-making expert who pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to bomb U.S. and other targets, discussed attending camps in Pakistan with a senior Lashkar recruiter, and later wrote to a fellow American about the ease of training with the group.

The largest known U.S. case involving Lashkar is the Virginia Jihad cell uncovered in 2003, which included Yong Ki Kwon, who converted to Islam as a student at Virginia Tech. After college, he met Lashkar-trained Virginia Jihad leader Randall Royer, who helped Mr. Kwon gain admission to Lashkar training camps.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/09/2009 01:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Taliban bombs school in Khybar District (Pakland)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) -- Taliban militants on Wednesday dynamited two boys' schools in Pakistan's Khyber district, where troops are pressing an offensive against Islamist insurgents, an official said.

The attacks took place in Bara town, about 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of the regional capital Peshawar,
about 20-25 miles from Afghanistan
with most of the buildings reduced to rubble but no one injured in the blasts in the early hours of the morning

"Both main school buildings were completely destroyed," said Shafeerullah Wazir, the top administrative official of Khyber district, adding that only two classrooms remained standing in the adjacent schools.

Wazir said that militants buried large quantities of dynamite around the outer walls of the government-run high school and primary school.

"Both Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam people are involved in this act," he said.
interesting if true - Lashkar hasn't been active in this area
Posted by: lord garth || 12/09/2009 08:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION TOPIX > TALIBAN WARN SOUTH KOREA OVER AFGHANISTAN TROOPS MISSION. SOKOR must prepare for "bad consequences" from their friends the Talibs iff it proceeds wid sending troops to Afghanistan, as the Talibs refuse to "take a SOFT APPROACH" ahz anyone.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/09/2009 23:48 Comments || Top||


Grenade attack injures 3 policemen in Quetta
[Geo News] Unknown armed men hurled hand grenades on the police at Sabzal Road in Quetta, injuring three of them, including a Station House Officer (SHO). The police told Geo News that a police party, chasing the mobile snatchers, reached the Pandrani street, where armed men threw hand granges at the police, leaving three policemen injured. The injured include SHO Saryab Jamil Marri, Constable Ghulam Dastgir and Constable Noor Ahmed, who were shifted to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


FBI sending team to Pakistan in terror probe
[Dawn] The US Embassy says the FBI is sending a team to Pakistan as part of an investigation into a Chicago terror suspect.

Embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire said Tuesday that the agents will brief Pakistani security officials about the probe into an alleged plot against Denmark and India.

David Coleman Headley, an American of Pakistani descent, was arrested in Chicago in October. US charges filed against him allege he conspired with Pakistan-based militant leaders and got help from a retired Pakistani army officer.

Snelsire says American investigators 'have been consulting closely with Pakistani authorities on this case and are working with them on following up on leads related to Headley's activities and connections in Pakistan.'
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  See also TOPIX > THE HINDU > AS MUMBAI HORRORS UNFOLDED, HEADLEY PLANNED FOR NEXT TERROR STRIKE [in Europe = Copenhagen, Denmark].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/09/2009 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  TIMES OF INDIA > HEADLEY PLOTTED TERROR ATTACKS ON JEWISH CENTRES IN FIVE CITIES, hoping to provoke a NEW INDO-PAK WAR???

* SAME > [Intel Services]BANGLA TERROR OUTFIT EYEING MUMBAI [ + HYDERABAD]? JMB = Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen(Bangladesh) - Indian Mujahideen + Deccan Mujahideen Groups still under Govt-Army watch.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/09/2009 21:29 Comments || Top||


Drone attack kills three in North Waziristan
[Dawn] Intelligence officials say a US missile strike has killed at least three people in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border. Two officials said the two missiles early Tuesday destroyed a car carrying three people in a village near Mir Ali, a main town in North Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Iraq
Baghdad bomb attacks kill 127, wound 450
[Al Arabiya Latest] At least 127 people were killed and 450 others wounded when four or more large car bombs shook Baghdad on Tuesday, the latest high-profile blasts apparently aimed at sensitive Iraqi government buildings, Al Arabiya reporter and police officials said.

The explosions rattled buildings across the capital, and undermined a fragile sense of security ahead of an auction of oilfield contracts this weekend, when executives from top oil firms will fly into town, and before an election next year.

According to Al Arabiya reporter, there were five attacks beside the Labor and Interior ministries and other governmental buildings.

"We will announce more details as we have them," Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi told Reuters.


Some police sources confirmed there had been five explosions, two near judicial buildings, one near a university, another near in a central Baghdad commercial district and the earlier one in the south. Smoke billowed from at least two sites.

The blasts are the first large, high-profile explosions in Baghdad since Oct. 25, when two massive truck bombs killed 155 people at the justice ministry and Baghdad governorate headquarters.

A smaller blast, which some police officials said might have involved the accidental explosion of a hidden stockpile of munitions, killed seven children at a school in the Shiite slum of Sadr City on Monday.

The major bomb attacks in the heart of the Iraqi capital in October and a similar earlier attack in August marked a change of tactics for Iraq's stubborn insurgency.

Rather than stage frequent smaller-scale attacks against soft targets like marketplaces or mosques, insurgent groups like al-Qaeda now appear to be aiming for spectacular and less frequent strikes against heavily defended government targets.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  The main difference between civic and social engineers is that the former understand the materials they work with.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/09/2009 4:30 Comments || Top||

#2  TOPIX > POLICE: BAGHDAD BOMBERS HAD HELP FROM SYRIAN, SAUDI GROUPS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/09/2009 23:44 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas: PA detained 11 members
[Ma'an] Hamas said on Tuesday that the Fatah-backed Palestinian Authority forces arrested 11 members of the Islamic movement in the West Bank in the past two days. In a statement received by Ma'an, Hamas said PA forces detained the movement's supporters from Ramallah, Nablus, Salfit, Hebron and Tulkarem.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  getting in the Holiday mood.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/09/2009 19:03 Comments || Top||


Islamic Jihad: Jenin leader dodges assassination
[Ma'an] Islamic Jihad said a leader in its military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, survived an assassination attempt near the West Bank city of Jenin on late on Sunday night.

In an announcement carried on Islamic Jihad websites, the group also said that three of its members were arrested in the town of Al-Yamoun.

The websites described how dozens of Israeli military vehicles stormed Al-Yamoun, on Sunday, following a group of undercover forces entered the village in Palestinian-plated cars and besieged home of Bajis Hamdiya.

Explosions and gunshots were heard in the area until dawn, the statements said.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said that on Saturday night, Israeli forces detained four people during an operation in Al-Yamoun, but that the military was "not aware of any unusual incidents" during the operation. The military "considers the claims to be false."
Israeli soldiers occupied several homes and roofs surrounding Hamdiya's home before they broke into the home. However, Islamic Jihad sources said, he managed to sneak out unharmed.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said that on Saturday night, Israeli forces detained four people during an operation in Al-Yamoun, but that the military was "not aware of any unusual incidents" during the operation.

The military "considers the claims to be false," the spokeswoman said.

Israeli forces have been pursuing Hamdiya since the beginning of the second Palestinian uprising (the Al-Aqsa Intifada). He survived several previous attempts on his life.

Hamdiya's brothers Majdi, Shadid, Amid, and Anid were detained during the raid, Islamic Jihad said. Three of them were released hours later, while 35-year-old Majdi was taken to an unknown location.

The Islamic Jihad sources stated that three Islamic Jihad activists were also detained during the Israeli invasion of Al-Yamoun. Sources identified them as 28-year-old Ahmad Baqli, 27-year-old Adib Sammoudi, and 26-year-old Awni Baqli.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Jihad

#1  ION WMF/GLOBAL TIMES > TALIBAN VOW TO KILL PRESIDENT ZARDARI, PM GILANI, AND CLOSE RELATIONS { + friends, asscociates etcs, as pertinent] OVER WAZIRISTAN OFFENSIVE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/09/2009 20:32 Comments || Top||


PFLP fighters claim ambush on Israeli forces in Gaza
[Ma'an] The armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades, claimed responsibility for an attack on Israeli soldiers east of Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza. According to a statement released by the paramilitary group, combatants of the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades clashed with Israeli forces near the Kisufeim governorate boundary. The attack was described as a normal reaction to the "crimes of the occupation" on its 42nd anniversary, the statement added.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: PFLP


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran says Sistan-Baluchestan bombers arrested
[Iran Press TV Latest] Nearly two month after a fatal attack in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan Province, the country's prosecutor general says a number of terrorists involved in the incident have been arrested.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Iran's Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i said that while the terrorists had been arrested they have yet to stand trial.

The Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group, which is believed to be closely affiliated with al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for the fatal attack in the borderline region of Pishin in southeastern Iran, which took place in October.

The terror attack left more than 40 people, including 15 members of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), dead.

Shia and Sunni tribal leaders were also among the victims of the vicious attack.

Explaining that the bomber himself has died, Mohseni-Eje'i said "a number of terrorists involved in the incident have been arrested; however, no trial has so far been held in this respect."

The remarks come as Iranian officials say certain foreign countries including the US, Britain, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are supporting Jundallah, seeking to disrupt peace and security in Iran.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jundullah


Iran releases three Belgian nationals
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran has released three Belgian nationals who were arrested earlier this year on charges of trying to "gather intelligence" in a no-entry zone.

The Tehran Prosecutor General's Office declared on Tuesday that Van den Bosch, Vincent Binfleur, and Diego Gomatio (all names as transliterated from Persian), who were arrested two months ago, have been released after an order by their investigator and an approval by Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi.

The Belgian nationals have been handed over to the Belgian Embassy in Tehran, the Fars news agency reported.
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


New Iran clashes as govt threatens "no mercy"
[Al Arabiya Latest] Protesters clashed with supporters of the Iranian regime for a second straight day Tuesday even as the chief prosecutor threatened to try the main opposition leader and vigilantes briefly besieged his office.

The new crackdown on the opposition to hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drew strong criticism from Western governments already angered by Iran's rejection of a U.N.-brokered deal aimed at allaying concerns over its nuclear ambitions.

Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi clashed at the prestigious Tehran University with backers of the Iranian government, official media said.

"Rioters wearing green wristbands" gathered from early in the day in front of the university's engineering college to protest against Monday's crackdown by authorities on people protesting against Ahmadinejad's hotly disputed June re-election, the state news agency IRNA said.

A confrontation ensued between the protesters and what the news agency described as pro-government students, resulting in the "breaking of glass and firing of tear gas," IRNA said.

It added that there had also been stone-throwing by supporters of Mousavi, Ahmadinejad's leading challenger in the June vote, who chose green as the signature color for his campaign and who has yet to accept the official result.

On Monday, anti-Ahmadinejad protesters used an annual Students Day ceremony on and around Tehran campuses to stage new demonstrations against his controversial second term.

Tehran police chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh said 204 demonstrators -- 165 men and 39 women -- were arrested in those protests for "disrupting public order."

Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi said 86 were later released "after they expressed remorse," news agencies reported.

Iran's chief prosecutor warned Tehran provincial authorities that he expected opposition leaders to face the full force of the law if they encouraged further protests.

"From now on, we will show no mercy toward anyone who acts against national security. They will be confronted firmly," said prosecutor Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, according to the official IRNA news agency.

And Tehran governor Morteza Tamaddon directly blamed Mousavi for the unrest since Monday.

"The statement Mousavi issued on Dec. 6 triggered the riots and moves that pleased the enemy on Dec. 7," he told IRNA.

On Sunday, Mousavi posted a statement on his website challenging regime officials ahead of the Students Day commemoration.

Meanwhile, dozens of people on motorcycles briefly surrounded Mousavi's office and prevented him from stepping out for several hours, witnesses and his Kaleme.com website reported.

Mousavi's wife attacked
All the entrances of the Academy of Fine Arts, located in central Tehran and which Mousavi heads, were surrounded by motorcyclists, a source working inside the building told AFP.

A group of vigilantes also attacked Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, who is a professor at Tehran University, during Monday's Student Day protests, another opposition website reported.

Rahnavard was hurt in the eyes and lungs, the Mowjcamp.com website added.

France strongly condemned "unacceptable" violence by Iranian authorities against opposition protesters.

"We remind the Iranian authorities that they are responsible for the safety of all Iranians, including opposition representatives," a French foreign ministry spokesman told reporters.

International reactions
E.U. foreign ministers meeting in Brussels were set to voice their "deep concern" at they regard as persistent human rights violations by Iran.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told reporters that the "violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations" had led E.U. nations to "significantly strengthen the language" used in their draft statement.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on Iran to respect the right to protest, saying it was a "fundamental freedom."

The unrest, now in its sixth month, has cut a rift through the Islamic regime, sparking its worst crisis since the 1979 revolution.

Reformist former president Mohammad Khatami warned that the regime was following a "dangerous" path in its dealings with critics, his website reported on Tuesday.

"The current situation is not a war between reformists and conservatives. Many conservatives are unhappy too and the wise ones among them face elimination."
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  At some point the people will begin to realize that if the government arrests everyone, who will run the country? How would the government feed all those people in prison? Who would drive the busses, repair the wires, fix broken water mains if they are all in jail?

Then the realization sinks in that the government can't really arrest them all, nor can the government kill them all. At that point, the people win and the government must let go.
Posted by: crosspatch || 12/09/2009 1:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Then the realization sinks in that the government can't really arrest them all, nor can the government kill them all. At that point, the people win and the government must let go.

A similar assessment was voiced in the 1930's 40's in Europe.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/09/2009 1:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Call me uncharitable, but I do hope children of some Iranian nuke scientist will participate in these riots and get badly hurt.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/09/2009 4:28 Comments || Top||

#4  We need Fox to begin carrying footage of the anti-government protestors chanting

Obama, Obama: Ya Ba Ona Yi, Ya Ba Ma

("Obama, Obama: You're either with them or with us").

Posted by: lord garth || 12/09/2009 6:24 Comments || Top||

#5  My dear Lord Garth, the Obamanation has made his choice clear.....he's with THEM!

His only discomfort is that he can't figure out how to invoke similar policies here.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/09/2009 7:28 Comments || Top||

#6  crosspatch, the Gandhi/people power thesis only holds if the government in question is capable of cringing at an Amritsar. The Iranian regime has repeatedly shown that it is unfazed by repeated Amritsars. The people en masse will always retreat with the threat of that "whiff of grapeshot". If there's a vigorous and nasty regime in power, it only matters if there's a ruthless and vicious conspiracy willing to use temporary popularity to hide Mao-like in the crowd & ambush the killers.

Then, most likely, you just exchange one brutal gang of killers for another.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/09/2009 8:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Where's Charlie Wilson when you need him?
Posted by: regular joe || 12/09/2009 15:23 Comments || Top||

#8  ION WMF > IRONIC! EMBOLDENED IRAQ NOW THREATENS IRAN WITH "STRONG RESPONSE"[stern warning by Baghdad agz Iran/Tehran oer Iran's construc of NUCFACS near the Iraq borders].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/09/2009 20:29 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
53[untagged]
4Govt of Iran
3al-Qaeda in Pakistan
2Hamas
1al-Shabaab
1CAIR
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Sudan
1al-Qaeda
1Hezbollah
1Iraqi Insurgency
1Islamic Jihad
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Jundullah
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Palestinian Authority
1PFLP
1Taliban

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2009-12-09
  Baghdad bomb attacks kill 127, wound 450
Tue 2009-12-08
  Peshawar blast kills 10, injures 45
Mon 2009-12-07
  Explosions rock market in Lahore
Sun 2009-12-06
  Little resistance on day 2 of US-Afghan offensive
Sat 2009-12-05
  Attack temporarily shuts Herat airport
Fri 2009-12-04
  Russian Police find car packed with explosives near train station
Thu 2009-12-03
  14 dead in suicide bomber attack in Somalia
Wed 2009-12-02
  Obama: 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan by summer
Tue 2009-12-01
  At least 61 militants killed in Khyber tribal region
Mon 2009-11-30
  Air strike kills 30 Taliban in Khost
Sun 2009-11-29
  Russia train disaster was terrorist attack
Sat 2009-11-28
  IAEA votes to censure Iran
Fri 2009-11-27
  Lebanon gives Hezbollah right to use arms against Israel
Thu 2009-11-26
  Afghan police commander jailed for having 40 tonnes of hashish
Wed 2009-11-25
  Belgian pleads guilty in US jet parts sale to Iran

Better than the average link...



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.
44.211.58.249
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Background (20)    Non-WoT (16)    Opinion (9)    (0)    Politix (11)