#3
Merry Christmas to Fred, all the mods and all the other Rantburgers. Had to wait until today to hit the tip jar for you. But thanks for letting me vent and thank you very much for providing an alternate source of information in these days of yellow journalism and alphabet TV news. They don't have to lie. All they have to do is be very, very selective in what little of the truth they're willing to share.
And, oh, BTW, thanks for all the DS&TP cheesecake.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Al Qaeda militants made a rare public appearance in restive south Yemen on Monday, telling an anti-government rally that the group's war was with the United States and not the Yemeni army, residents said.
The West and Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda will take advantage of the Yemeni government's focus on a Shi'ite rebellion in the north and rising secessionist sentiment in the south to spread its operations to the kingdom, the world's top oil exporter.
"Soldiers, you should know that there is no problem between us and you. The problem is between us and America and its lackeys," residents quoted one militant as telling hundreds of people gathered to protest against the killing of dozens of civilians in government raids aimed at al Qaeda last week.
Al Jazeera television showed footage of the militant addressing the crowd while an armed comrade stood by as a bodyguard. Both were unmasked.
An explosion killed three people during the protest, held at a suspected al Qaeda training camp bombed during Thursday's raids in southern Abyan province. A security official blamed al Qaeda for the blast, which some reports said may have been caused by unexploded munitions.
Yemen said on Thursday its security forces and warplanes had foiled a planned series of suicide bombings by attacking targets including the al Qaeda training center.
About 30 al Qaeda militants were killed and 17 arrested in Abyan and in Arhab, northeast of the capital Sanaa, it said.
Protesters, including supporters of the Southern Movement which says south Yemen has been marginalized and wants it to secede, say about 50 people were killed, most of them civilians.
The New York Times said on Saturday that the United States gave military hardware, intelligence and other support to Yemeni forces to carry out the raids.
Saudi and Yemeni militants said earlier this year they were uniting under the name Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, using Yemen as their base.
Besides fighting al Qaeda militants and separatist unrest Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is fighting a war against Shi'ite rebels in the north.
Political analysts say such conflicts, together with falling oil income, water shortages and a humanitarian crisis, add to instability in a region that includes oil superpower Saudi Arabia and one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
There's never a Predator around when you need one....
[Al Arabiya Latest] Seventy-three Saudi soldiers have been killed, 470 wounded and 26 are missing since fighting broke out in November between Saudi forces and Yemeni rebels, a Saudi minister said Tuesday.
"The confrontation on the southern border" has resulted in "73 martyrs and 26 missing" soldiers, said Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan in comments broadcast on television from a media conference in Al-Khoba in the southern Jizan province.
"We believe that 12 of (the missing soldiers) were killed, while we do not know about the fate of the other 14," Prince Khaled said.
" The number of wounded has reached 470, the majority of whom have been treated and released "
Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan"The number of wounded has reached 470, the majority of whom have been treated and released, while 60 remain in hospitals," he added.
This is the first time Saudi Arabia has given a death toll for the fighting between Saudi forces and Yemeni Shiite rebels, also known as Houthis, which began more than a month and a half ago. On November 3, rebels killed a Saudi border guard and occupied two villages inside the kingdom's territory.
Saudi jets began bombing Houthi positions the following day.
Prince Khaled said that the bulk of operations were now over, but noted that a small border village called Al-Jabiriyah was still under Houthi control.
"They have 24 hours to surrender, or we will destroy them," he said, referring to the rebels occupying the village.
While the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis began recently, fighting between the rebels and the Yemeni government has occurred sporadically since 2004.
The latest round broke out after government troops launched "Operation Scorched Earth," an all-out assault against the rebels, on Aug. 11.
Saudi Arabia and its U.S. ally worry that al-Qaeda is trying to use Yemen, as a launch pad for attacks in the kingdom and beyond.
There is no evidence supporting Yemeni allegations that al-Qaeda has links to the Houthis, but some diplomats and analysts say the Sunni militant group might try to use the rebels or at least exploit the chaos in the border area.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"Saudi Arabia and its U.S. ally worry that al-Qaeda is trying to use Yemen, as a launch pad for attacks in the kingdom and beyond."
Gee, what gave us the impression that Yemen could do such a thing? It's not like a safe house in Yemen was used to coordinate between Al Qaeda and the 19 hijackers in America before 9/11. And it's not like Bin Laden's father was Yemeni. Oh..wait..
Posted by: American Delight ||
12/23/2009 6:47 Comments ||
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#2
and the USS Cole happened in a port in Yemen
Posted by: chris ||
12/23/2009 12:11 Comments ||
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BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -- A Colombian governor kidnapped by leftist rebels was killed shortly after he was snatched from his home in a rural southern state, authorities said Tuesday. The acting governor of Caqueta state, Patricia Vega, told local radio that officials had confirmed that Caqueta Gov. Luis Cuéllar had been killed. He was dragged from his home by armed rebels Monday in a nighttime raid.
The kidnapping of Cuéllar underscores how the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC -- Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency -- remains capable of high-profile operations despite being battered to its weakest position in decades by President Álvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed military offensive.
Armed rebels dressed in military uniforms blasted through the door of Cuéllar's house in a southern city late Monday, killed a police guard and forced the governor into a vehicle, officials said.
"We felt a blast and a lot of shots," Cuéllar's wife, Imelda, told local radio. "They dragged him down the stairs like he was an animal."
The rural state has traditionally been a FARC stronghold. Authorities said the FARC's Teofilo Forero unit was responsible for the kidnapping, a reminder of the darker days of Colombia's long conflict, when lawmakers and politicians were easy prey for rebel hostage squads.
"Every military and police effort must be made to ensure a rescue," Uribe told reporters. "We cannot be held captive by the whim of terrorists -- terrorists who bathe the country in blood and who trick us everyday."
The FARC once controlled large parts of Colombia, Latin America's fourth-largest oil producer. But urban bombings and kidnappings eased after Uribe sent troops to take back areas from armed groups funded by cocaine trafficking. Foreign investment soared as cities became safer, kidnappings dropped and soldiers took back rural areas once off-limits to petroleum and mining companies for security reasons.
The FARC is still a force in rural areas. But the rebels have increasingly turned to ambushes and the use of land mines as they are driven back deep into the mountains and jungles.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/23/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Um, what are the chances that Chavez sees the FARC as his Viet Cong, and all of his stomping about, fuming about Columbian provocations, are preparing the battlespace for insertion of Venezuelan NVA analogs into Columbia? I mean, he calls his little fascist party "Bolivarian", meaning not the crap-ass Andean country but Simon Bolivar, who certainly thought of all of north-western South America as a single nation, Gran Columbia.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
12/23/2009 9:24 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Four suspected militants were killed in Swat's Karakar area, DawnNews reported security sources as saying Tuesday. Two soldiers were also injured, sources said.
According to the Swat Media Centre, a group of militants were attempting to enter Buner from Swat. However, security personnel intercepted them en route, resulting in a fierce clash.
In the ensuing exchange of fire, four suspected militants were killed while two security personnel were injured.
Two Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), two Klashnikovs, wireless sets and a sub-machine gun were also seized from the militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Seven militants were killed and five others sustained injuries when jet fighters targeted their hideouts in upper part of the Orakzai Agency on Tuesday.
Official sources said the hideouts of militants in Ghiljo, Dabori and Mamozai areas of the tribal agency were targeted, in which seven militants were killed and five others injured. Meanwhile, security was beefed up in Orakzai Agency, particularly in Kalaya, Ibrahimzai, Mela, Zera, Manikhel, Merobak and Sra Mela areas.
All routes leading to the Imambargahs in the area were sealed and security was tightened Meanwhile, six militants were killed in a clash with security forces in Elam area in Buner district on Tuesday, official sources said.
Sources said that six militants opened fire on security forces while approaching a checkpost. The sources said the forces returned the fire and six militants were killed in the clash. The dead militants included Kherati Gul, Raza Khan, Rehmatullah, Zahid Hussain and Nasir while the name of one militant could not be ascertained. Among the killed, four militants belonged to Swat while two were from Buner district.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Four Iraqi policemen have died and several others have been injured in the city of Baghdad and the provinces of Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Anbar as the country experiences another upsurge in violence.
A policeman was killed on Monday when he came under attack by unknown gunmen in front of a gas station in southern part of Kirkuk city. The gunmen escaped the scene in a vehicle and their whereabouts are unknown. Security forces cordoned off the area after the attack and launched an investigation.
A police officer also succumbed to injuries sustained last week in Kirkuk. "Lieutenant Mohammad Ahmad from the Kirkuk police department died on Monday at a hospital in Sulaymaniya. The officer had been wounded last Wednesday (December 16) in a sticky bomb explosion in al-Muallemin neighborhood in northwestern Kirkuk," a police official said.
In another incident, unidentified assailants shot dead an Iraqi police officer in Mosul, which is the capital of Nineveh province.
"On Monday afternoon, a policeman was killed by unknown gunmen in al-Majmoua al-Thaqafiyah region in northern Mosul," a local security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
In addition, two Iraqi police officers were injured on Monday when a thermal bomb targeting an Iraqi army vehicle patrol went off in the al-Islah al-Zeraei neighborhood of western Mosul. The two wounded policemen were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Elsewhere, a policeman was killed when an explosive charge attached to his car detonated and destroyed his vehicle in the city of Fallujah, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Baghdad.
The attack came as insurgent attacks have increased recently in the once volatile province of Anbar. The province has been relatively calm for more than two years after Sunni tribes and some anti-US insurgent groups decided to cooperate with US troops and Iraqi security forces to fight against the Al-Qaeda in Iraq network.
And in Baghdad, two more policemen were injured by a roadside bomb that was detonated as their patrol passing through the al-Adel neighborhood.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2009 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Two Shiite worshippers were gunned down on Tuesday close to the town of Baquba while leaving a mosque after carrying out rituals as part of the Shiite religious commemoration of Ashura, police said.
"Men in a car opened fire on worshippers who were leaving the mosque, where they were participating in flagellation as part of preparations for Ashura, killing two of them," said a police officer.
The shooting occurred in the village of Berginiyah, east of Baquba and northeast of Baghdad.
The 10-day Ashura rituals commemorate the killing of Shiite Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680.
In the lead-up to it, some Shiites visit mosques to carry out self-flagellation rituals, hitting themselves on their backs with chains attached to sticks.
Meanwhile, in Fallujah, a former insurgent bastion just west of Baghdad, the head of the town's city council Hamid Ahmed al-Hashim was wounded when a magnetic "sticky bomb" was attached to his car as he left his home.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2009 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces opened fire on a car driven by an official in the pacifist Islamist movement Hizb Ut-Tahrir on Monday night, officials said.
Shots were fired at Maher Al-Jabari, one of Islamic Jihad's press officers, moments before he was arrested by PA security services near his office at the Palestine Polytechnic University in the West Bank city of Hebron.
In a statement about the incident, Hizb Ut-Tahrir said Al-Jabari was also assaulted during the arrest. He is now being held at an unknown location.
A PA security official told Ma'an that Al-Jabari failed to obey a police order to stop his car, and while trying to escape crashed his vehicle into three other cars.
The source, who insisted on anonymity, said PA officers fired in the air to force Al-Jabari to stop, he was then arrested and taken to a detention center. The official also noted that there was a standing order to arrest Al-Jabari on sight.
Last Thursday Hizb Ut-Tahrir reported that the PA surrounded Al-Jabari's house in Hebron in a bid to arrest him, but then left the area without doing so.
Hizb Ut-Tahrir's mandate calls for the reestablishment of an Islamic caliphate in Arab countries but shuns the use of violence. The group does not recognize the PA's authority.
The PA has clamped down on Islamist opposition throughout the West Bank since the take-over of Gaza by the Hamas government.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
the pacifist Islamist movement Hizb Ut-Tahrir
Oh, oh! Pinocchio's nose just grew by 3 feet.
Posted by: ed ||
12/23/2009 1:21 Comments ||
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Terrorists Suspected separatists have shot dead a three-year-old girl and left her older sister seriously wounded in the latest violence to hit Thailand's far south. They said an unknown number of gunmen on foot fired shots into the house where the girls were playing on Monday evening in restive Pattani province.
The toddler was shot in the head and died immediately and her six-year-old sister remains in hospital after being shot in the back. No one else was in the house at the time of the incident.
Eight soldiers were also wounded in two separate attacks, police said. They said in Pattani's Kapho district two soldiers were hurt in a clash with militants as they tried to arrest them on suspicion of carrying out an arson attack at a local school early yesterday. The militants escaped the scene.
Shortly afterwards a roadside bomb explosion wounded six soldiers travelling on three motorcycles patrolling the Bannang Sata district of Yala province.
Today, a 37-year-old Muslim man was shot dead in a drive-by shooting in the Yarang district of Pattani province as he returned from taking his children to school.
NICOSIA -- Iran claims its new solid-fuel ballistic missile can evade radar detection. The Defense Ministry said the Sejil-2 was coated with an unidentified material Hummus?
that could foil detection by long-range radar. A senior official said the coating was one of several elements added to the intermediate-range ballistic missile to prevent radar detection.
U.S. government sources have dismissed the Iranian claim. The sources said the U.S. intelligence community tracked the flight of Sejil-2 from launch without disruption. Quick Ahriman, more Hummus!
"The special paint [coating], the substance used in the shell and some special electronic devices used in the missile are the main three factors that provide a radar-evading capability to the missile," Brig. Gen. Mehdi Farahi, director of the Defense Ministry's Aerospace Organization, said.
In a statement to the semi-official Fars News Agency on Dec. 19, Farahi provided some details of Sejil-2, launched in a test three days earlier. Farahi said Sejil-2, with a reported range of 2,500 kilometers, marked an important element in Iran's deterrence posture.
"The optimized missile is one of the important achievements of the Islamic republic of Iran's defense experts, which plays a significant role in increasing the deterrence power of the Iranian armed forces," Farahi said.
For his part, Farahi said Sejil-2 was designed to penetrate missile defense systems deployed by Israel and the United States. He said the missile was coated with a substance that prevented radar lock-on required for interception.
Sejil-2 was described as a two-stage missile with two engines. Officials said the missile featured a larger range and higher altitude than the liquid-fueled Shihab-3, which could travel about 2,000 kilometers.
"Iran successfully tested the second generation of Sejil missiles and brought them into mass production earlier this year," the Fars News Agency reported. "Sejil missiles are considered third-generation Iranian-made long-range missiles."
#7
I wonder how much sh$$ the Iranian generals would generate if one of our Trident boats came down into that part of the Indian Ocean and fired off four or five missiles - all targeting Iran. I'm sure their plans to "wipe out Israel" and develop home-grown nuclear weapons would suffer a slight setback...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/23/2009 16:48 Comments ||
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#8
"coated with an unidentified material" Silly it the same material that causes global warming: AL GORE
The home of a senior pro-reform cleric Ayatollah Yousaf Sanei was attacked by members of an Islamic militia and "plainclothes men" in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday, a reformist website said.
The Norooz site said attackers insulted Sanei, beat up some of his associates and broke windows. There was no immediate official comment. The reported incident took place a day after the funeral procession of Iran's leading dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. It said the people gathered at the funeral were chanting anti-government slogans. Earlier on Tuesday, the semi-official Fars News Agency said pro-government theology students had staged a rally in Qom to protest "the insult against sanctities" during Montazeri's funeral procession. The news agency said the demonstration ended outside Sanei's home but it was not clear whether it was linked to the attack on Sanei's house as reported by Norooz.
The demonstrators chanted, "The city of Qom is no city for hypocrites," and signed a statement calling for Sanei to be defrocked, Fars reported. One of the signatories, cleric Ahmad Panahian, said: "The trenches of the hypocrites in Qom must be destroyed."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/23/2009 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.
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Seven militants were killed and five others sustained injuries when jet fighters targeted their hideouts in upper part of the Orakzai Agency on Tuesday.
