A few simple reminders as we get into the new year:
We focus on the WoT and matters related to the WoT. That includes general thuggery around the world, such as Zim-bob-we, and the politics surrounding the WoT. The farther away it is from that, the less likely people here want to read it here on Rantburg. We assume y'all read other weblogs for the other news. Rantburg has been getting some posts that are -- frankly -- a distraction from what we want to cover. The more we get away from the WoT, the more we look just like any other blog, and that's not the point for us. We have an eclectic readership and we want to keep it that way.
We do carry a fair bit of politics ('seedy politician') but even there the focus is on how that news relates to the fight against terrorism and the defense of the good.
Very simply: domestic issues in Australia, surface crawlers on Mars, and the general state of Tiger Woods' rehab shouldn't be posted here. Unless Fred does it in which case it's okay.
I say this again in salmon color: we focus on the WoT!
Check for duplicates before you post. We've had a number of these lately, so please check on the Burg, particularly if it looks like 'breaking news'.
I say this in salmon color as well: check for duplicates!
And that goes for "wheat" color too!
Provide a source URL for your post.. This goes into the 'source' box in the poster. If you don't provide a URL your post will be deleted. None of the moderators have enough time to look for the source of your post.
Shorter, not longer, titles. Remember, the URL does NOT go into the title box. Snarky and catchy titles are fine.
Shorter, not longer, posts. Keep 'em short and snappy, just the meat, only fair use.
File it in the right place. If it's about the current insurrection in Yemen, don't file it under 'Great White North'.
Opinion pieces go into the 'Opinion' category. Tricky, eh? This includes blog pieces. Some exceptions exist: VDH, Lileks, and Marc Steyn can go into any appropriate category. All the rest go into Opinion. And that's not an invitation for other blog-owners to post stuff in Opinion just to advertise their own blog.
Your opinion is welcome. Opinion is also for your own original articles, for everyone, but especially for Rantburg regulars. If you have an opinion, post it here. And don't forget your byline.
Please format the post. Help us make posts readable. Think of it as a chance to teach English composition to the MSM. Delete the fluff and the stuff we already know. Some gentle editing to make a post readable helps all of us, especially the moderators who then don't have to go back and re-edit stuff.
No 'more at the link', no ellipses and no 'snips'. Readers assume you're editing the post to just the good stuff (see above). Therefore you don't need ellipses or [SNIP]'s to tell us that you edited the post. Since you gave us the source URL (right?) a reader can always go to the original. That means you don't need to say at the bottom, 'hit the link to read the rest'. The readers already know that.
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And as always, thanks for all your support. You make Rantburg a special place.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Noted. But I am in short attention span theatre.
#4
Thanks a lot. Rantburg seems to be becoming the "interesting link of the day" website instead of WoT news. If I want weird news, I can go to thousands of other websites, but for WoT, Rantburg is the best.
I mean, come on - Darwin award winners? Who the F cares?
#5
I love the Darwin Award winners, gromky. But I s'pose that kind of thing could be posted to the O Club, along with Pappy's Picks, Alaska Paul's gorgeous photos and badanov's wonderful Christmas music collection. What say you all?
#6
Darwin awards are something I can get from another website. Rantburg is for WoT news. If Rantburg becomes Yet Another Amusing Link Of The Day Site[tm] then there's no point in coming here. Plenty of those about, and all of them are better at being amusing than Rantburg.
#12
We do carry a fair bit of politics ('seedy politician') but even there the focus is on how that news relates to the fight against terrorism and the defense of the good.
My recent posts concerning our socialist/marxist government have gone through, but I will keep this in mind and try to stick closer to Rantburg's raison d'etre.
Gromky makes the point well: the Darwin awards are funny but we can go there ourselves.
As a mod I will be deleting posts that get away from our raison of entry, or something like that, and I know the other mods will be vigilant as well. So if we dump your post that doesn't mean we don't like you, it just means it was too far from our core mission.
Just a new year's resolution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/07/2010 9:45 Comments ||
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#15
How about a category to handle stuff that is unrelated but seems to fit the mood here, such as Darwin Awards, medical stuff, Idiot of the Day, etc.?
And no that isn't a picture of a young Nancy Pelousy, otherwise the text would read more like "Clueless, Rudderless, Veangeful, Hypocritical Bitch For the Children".
#21
maybe a category called 'Darwin at work' for 'work accidents' in the ummah? i always think 'evolution in action' when i read of premature explodation
Posted by: abu do you love ||
01/07/2010 15:01 Comments ||
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Al Qaeda has confirmed that the US killed the leader of the Lashkar al Zil, or the Shadow Army, the terror group's military organization along the Afghan and Pakistani border.
Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda's leader in Afghanistan, said that Abdullah Said al Libi was killed in a US airstrike in Pakistan. Yazid confirmed that Al Libi was killed in a tape praising the suicide attack on the CIA base in Khost. Yazid also confirmed that Saleh al Somali, al Qaeda's former external operations chief, was also killed in a US attack.
Yazid said the suicide attack against the CIA at Combat Outpost Chapman in Khost province on Dec. 30, 2009, was carried out by an al Qaeda operative named Dr. Abu Dujanah al Khurasani. Media reports indicate the attack was carried out by a Jordanian doctor named Humam Khalil Muhammed Abu Mulal al Balawi, who enticed the CIA with promises of being able to produce Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command. Khurasani and Balawi are indeed the same person.
The suicide attack, which killed seven CIA operatives and a Jordanian intelligence official, was designed to "avenge" the death of al Libi, Somali, and former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, Yazid said, according to a translation of his statement received by The Long War Journal.
"[This attack was carried out] to avenge our righteous martyrs, as he [Khurasani/Balawi] (may God have mercy on him) wrote in his will: 'To avenge the leader, Amir Baitullah Mehsud, the leaders Abu Saleh al Somali and Abdullah Said al Libi, and their brothers (may God have mercy on them)."
But Abdullah Said al Libi was not listed by US intelligence as being killed during recent strikes. "[Mustafa Abu Yazid's statement] is our first true indication that Abdullah Said al-Libi is dead, which is the subtext for why Ilyas Kashmiri has been listed as the Lashkar al Zil commander in recent media reports," a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal. It is not clear exactly when al Libi was killed.
The Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army, is the successor to al Qaeda's notorious Brigade 055, the military formation that fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan from 1996-2002. The Shadow Army formed from the ashes of 055 Brigade in Pakistan's tribal areas from 2002-2006. The Shadow Army has been expanded to six brigades, and has an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 fighters. In addition to dispatching small teams of embedded trainers to Taliban units, the Shadow Army fights in military formations along the Afghan and Pakistani border region.
The Shadow Army occasional fights alongside the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin, and the Haqqani Network, in formations ranging from squad to company level. Evidence of this was seen recently in Swat and Bajaur in Pakistan, where the Pakistani Army met stiff resistance in some battles, as well as during battles in North and South Waziristan in 2007 and 2008.
The Shadow Army also played a role in the assaults on joint US and Afghan outposts in Nuristan province last fall, as well as in a series of attacks last year on outposts in the Afghan provinces of Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Kunar, and Nuristan. The most publicized attack took place in July 2008 in Wanat in Nuristan, when nine US soldiers were killed and the base was nearly overrun.
The US has targeted the leaders of the Shadow Army during its air campaign in Pakistan's northwest. The US killed Khalid Habib, the former leader of the Shadow Army, during an airstrike in South Waziristan in Pakistan last November. Habib was replaced by Abdullah Said al Libi. The US also killed Zuhaib al Zahib, a senior commander in the Shadow Army during a strike at the end of December.
US intelligence officials believe that the suicide bomb attack that killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan last month was planned with the help of Osama bin Laden's close allies, raising fears that the al-Qaeda leader is enjoying a lethal resurgence. They think that the attack could not have taken place without the prior knowledge and assistance of the Haqqanis, the powerful Taleban group thought to be shielding bin Laden.
The attack was carried out by a Jordanian doctor whom the CIA believed was about to divulge the whereabouts of bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al- Zawahiri. It is one of the deadliest blows against the CIA and has increased tensions between the US and Pakistan because of Islamabad's repeated failure to target the Haqqanis.
The Haqqanis control a large block of territory on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border near the Afghan town of Khost, a Taleban hotbed near where the CIA officials were killed on December 30. It is also where the US believes bin Laden is hiding.
One former CIA officer, who did not wish to be named, told The Times that the agency had taped evidence of a Pakistani army officer tipping the Haqqanis off about a raid and a member of Pakistan's intelligence service boasting that the “Haqqanis are our guys'.
Pakistan has ignored US demands to target the strongholds of the Haqqanis' leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose father, Jalaluddin, founded the network and was a Mujahidin commander and ally of the US during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. The network is said to be behind several audacious attacks, including the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in July 2008.
Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA unit tracking bin Laden, said: “There is no way this operation would have occurred in Khost without the knowledge and active support of Jalaluddin Haqqani and/or his son. They and their organisation own the area and nothing occurs that would impact their tribe or its allies without their knowledge or OK. Both men, moreover, would be delighted to help bin Laden in any way they can.'
Mahmood Shah, who served as security chief of Pakistan's lawless tribal region, agreed: “The attack may have been planned by al-Qaeda, but it could not have been possible without the help of the Haqqani group.'
What has alarmed the US is the fact that al-Qaeda and the Taleban managed, despite an intense US bombing campaign, to mount an operation that wiped out the top CIA experts involved in the hunt for bin Laden. “It's a huge blow,' a former CIA officer said. “If you are Osama bin Laden, your biggest enemy is the CIA. This is a big hit.'
Certainly makes Binny to be the stronger horse in the region, doesn't it ...
The attack was carried out by Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, who came to the CIA via Jordanian intelligence. He had already provided accurate information on the whereabouts of lower-level al-Qaeda and Taleban operatives
Thus demonstrating his 'bona-fides' ...
but he was allowed on to the CIA's Forward Operating Base Chapman without undergoing a security check and then permitted access to more than ten CIA employees, an extraordinarily high number to congregate around an Islamist informant. He detonated his bomb soon after entering the base, killing four CIA field agents, three CIA security guards and a Jordanian intelligence officer. One of the dead was the CIA's chief at the base, a woman in her mid-thirties.
CIA is supposed to be better than this. This is slip-shod fieldcraft. I don't care how much you 'trust' the guy, you're supposed to trust no one and behave accordingly.
“Several of the [dead] were ... among the top five experts on al- Qaeda in the United States,' Mr Scheuer said. “When you lose that type of expertise, it's very hard to replace it; impossible in the near term.'
Former CIA officials told The Times that the high number of CIA officers travelling from Kabul to meet al-Balawi reflected how desperate the agency was for information on bin Laden.
That al-Balawi came via Jordanian intelligence has proved deeply embarrassing for Jordan, exposing how closely the country works with the US in sharing intelligence and operatives on the front line in the war against extremists. The Jordanian intelligence official killed in the blast was buried in Jordan on Tuesday but the Jordanian Government refused to acknowledge his role with the CIA in Afghanistan. Anti-US sentiment is high in Jordan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/07/2010 10:26 ||
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#1
He had already provided accurate information on the whereabouts of lower-level al-Qaeda and Taleban operatives
Sometimes you must give up operatives to make operatives. Not an entirely new concept.
Upon taking power in 1993, Risen reports, the Clinton administration "began slashing the intelligence budget in search of a peace dividend, and Bill Clinton showed almost no interest in intelligence matters."
The agency cutbacks combined with presidential disinterest took their toll almost immediately.
"Over a three-or-four-year period in the early-to-mid 1990s," reports Risen, "virtually an entire generation of CIA officers - the people who had won the Cold War - quit or retired. One CIA veteran compared the agency to an airline that had lost all of is senior pilots . . . "
After Clinton CIA Director John Deutch cashiered several senior officers over a scandal in Guatamala, the situation got even worse.
"Morale [at the CIA] plunged to new lows, and the agency became paralyzed by an aversion to high-risk espionage operations for fear they would lead to political flaps. Less willing to take big risks, the CIA was less able to recruit spies in dangerous places such as Iraq."
The Clinton era of risk aversion also hobbled CIA efforts to get Osama bin Laden. In early 1998, Risen says, the agency was prepared to launch a special operation to kidnap the al Qaeda chief in Afghanistan.
"To be sure the operation was high risk, and there was a strong possibility that it would be so messy that bin Laden would be killed rather than captured. [CIA Director George] Tenet and the CIA's lawyers worried deeply about that issue; they believed the covert action finding on al Qaeda that President Clinton had signed authorized only bin Laden's capture, not his death."
Frustrated by restrictions that made dealing with the big challenges too difficult, the agency turned its energy to lesser problems.
Reports Risen: "Thanks to Vice President Al Gore, for example, the CIA briefly made the global environment one of is priorities."
#3
I think that there was always the concern, especially after the turnaround in Iraq, that AQ et al would lay low until after the US Presidential election where a Democrat was all but assured a win, most likely on a toning down on the war. Human Man caused disasters? That is someone smoking while filling the car up with gas, VH1 programming, Congress, not a term for what should be considered SF operations.
There are the symbolic attacks, but disruption of economics/trade was also a strategy. The important Aden theatre has been a quiet hot for a couple years. We have seen a counter offensive after quietly expanding the operations in this region, which should have been anticipated.
That an airline bomb and high level turncoat were big cards played everyone needs to understand, and to people not on the in the KSM trial and non-conclusion of Ft. Hood is like playing Blackjack without checking the down card. There is hush-hush then there is the obvious expansion of this killing confict without acknowledgement from the commander in chief in any effort other than passing phrases IMHO.
#4
B. Raman disagrees with this interpretation of the attack. He doesn't believe that it was done by bin Laden's inner circle and the Haqqanis. He beleives instead that it was Al Qaeda in Iraq and Pakistani (though not Afghan) Taliban. He lays out his thinking here and here.
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Fourteen suspected terrorists died Tuesday night when the bus they rigged with explosives blew up prematurely, police said.
The explosion occurred as the suspects were riding the bus in the province of Kunduz, said police chief Abdul Raziq Yaqobi.
Yaqobi said the suspects wanted to attack Afghan police or foreign soldiers.
#6
We got Timmy a CD player for Christmas, and he's played that song at least 30 times a day since. He also has a couple of CDs with Bible School songs. Those bring back memories!
It seems that the Afghan Taliban are being forced to use old Soviet explosives (LOT of those lying around). The problem is, they're more than 20 years old, haven't been properly stored, and likely to go off at any moment, with or without reason. May they continue!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/07/2010 13:42 Comments ||
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#7
It is obviously a Boom and Bus cycle.
***ducks***
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/07/2010 14:54 Comments ||
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A roadside bomb hit foreign troops in Eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing five Afghan civilians and wounding 15 others.
At least nine NATO service members and a number of Afghan police are among the wounded, officials said.
The incident occurred in a rush morning hour in the Rodat District as a military convoy was crossing the area.
Master Sergeant Jeff Lotfin, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, said two Afghan civilians were killed and nine ISAF troops and four Afghan police were among those wounded by the bomb in Nangarhar Province.
Jamil Pardes, head of a hospital in the provincial capital Jalalabad, said 29 people had been treated for wounds and two civilians had been killed.
Provincial government spokesman Abdul Zia Abdulzai said two had died, both of them children.
Civilian deaths, especially children, are an increasingly sensitive issue in the Afghanistan conflict.
The independent human rights group Afghanistan Rights Monitor said today that more than 1,050 children under 18 died last year in war-related incidents.
The nationalities of the wounded NATO troops in Wednesday bombing are not confirmed but most of NATO forces in the area are Americans.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The independent human rights group Afghanistan Rights Monitor said today that more than 1,050 children under 18 died last year in war-related incidents.
Too many of those "children" between 15 and 18 aren't really "children", but the younger members of the Taliban and other groups. Another tough question to ask these bleeding hearts is how many of those "children" died as suicide bombers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/07/2010 20:24 Comments ||
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[Maghrebia] A Moroccan court postponed a hearing for six terror suspects until January 19th, MAP reported on Tuesday (January 5th). The defendants, including a female doctor at a public hospital in Rabat, face charges of forming a criminal group to commit terrorist acts, belonging to a banned religious organisation and financing terrorism. The group allegedly recruited Moroccan fighters for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Prisoners held on terrorism charges in Casablanca ended their 42-day hunger strike on Monday (January 4th), after guards and prison administration agreed to initiate a dialogue on why certain prison privileges had been revoked.
The hunger strike was sparked on November 23rd, when Okasha Prison authorities searched the prisoners' cells and all the items brought to the prison by the inmates' families.
The prisoners began striking on November 24th following the search and the "unprecedented" seizure of their personal belongings, according to Abdel Rahim Mahtad, who defends the human rights of terrorism suspects through the Nasir Association for the Defence of Islamic Detainees.
However, one prisoner is continuing to refuse food. Sheikh Hassan Kettani maintains he is innocent and that he has been unjustly incarcerated. Kettani, a formerly prominent preacher, is serving 20 years after his conviction for inciting the perpetrators of the 2003 Casablanca bombings.
The strike is the latest development in Morocco's ongoing struggle to balance human rights and security.
Moroccan authorities admitted in 2005 that abuses were committed during the systematic roundup of suspects following the Casablanca bombings. The broad sweep for potential suspects drew criticism from human rights organisations such as the Forum for the Dignity of Human Rights.
"Many people who were arrested in the crackdown by Moroccan security authorities after the terrorist incidents were not connected to these incidents, and it's wrong that they remain in prison," said the forum's president, Mustafa Ramid.
Ramid said that prisoners lawfully convicted of terrorist activity should "serve their sentences". However, he said that prisoners who simply flirted with takfirism but never acted on it deserve special consideration.
"We believe a dialogue should be initiated with them to examine their previous positions," Ramid said.
Moroccan authorities maintain that the widespread arrests were necessary.
"Moroccan security had no choice but to make precautionary arrests," an anonymous security source told Magharebia. "Many people were arrested because of their apparent sympathy with terrorist groups and their being influenced by takfirism and jihadism. They could, at any moment, move from passive sympathy to action. This is what Moroccan security did not allow to happen" by arresting thousands after the bombing.
Morocco gradually improved conditions for the prisoners, even granting 350 of those convicted of terrorism a royal pardon with unconditional release in 2005 and 2006. Over 1,000 Salafi jihadist detainees came to enjoy more privileges within prisons in Casablanca and Kenitra.
A March 2008 attempt by jihadist prisoners to escape Kenitra Prison, however, resulted in stricter rules for prisoners, and many of their privileges were rescinded.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"We believe a dialogue should be initiated with them to examine their previous positions," Ramid said.
We can speak to them tonight at Rick's. Everyone goes to Rick's!
[Maghrebia] Armed terrorists in Algeria's Bouira province kidnapped an Algerian employee of Canadian company SNC-Lavalin, El Watan reported on Wednesday (January 6th). The engineer was seized early Sunday while heading to work at a water-treatment project in Djebahia. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
In related news, Algerian security services arrested nine suspected terrorists in the Bouzria neighbourhood of Algiers, Tout sur l'Algerie reported on Tuesday. Cars, explosives and electronic devices were seized during the operation. According to security sources, the unnamed suspects had previously received heavy prison sentences for terrorist activities.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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The alleged US plane bomber met radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, after being recruited in London, a senior Yemeni official has said. Well, well, well ....
Last week US security official John Brennan said there were "indications" of direct contact between the two men. Quelle surprise
Mr Awlaki was linked to an attack by a US army major on the Fort Hood base in November, in which 13 people died.
Yemeni Deputy PM Rashad al-Alimi also said bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab used explosives from Nigeria not Yemen.
"That's why they didn't go off as planned. Our Yemeni bombmakers are held to a much higher standard," he added. "Really."
Mr Abdulmutallab was indicted by a US grand jury on six counts on Wednesday. Charges against him include attempted murder of the 290 people aboard the plane and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
Mr Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to detonate a bomb on Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, but the plane landed safely after crew and passengers overpowered him.
In a separate development, Mr Alimi said that five Germans including three children and a Briton kidnapped in Yemen six months ago are still alive. He said northern Shia rebels were co-operating with al-Qaeda over the kidnap.
'Not just a cleric'
Mr Alimi told journalists that Mr Abdulmutallab "joined al-Qaeda in London".
The suspected bomber studied at University College London (UCL) from September 2005 to June 2008 and was president of its Islamic society in 2006-07. But UCL has said there is no evidence to suggest Mr Abdulmutallab was radicalised while he was there.
Mr Alimi also said the suspect met Mr Awlaki in the cleric's ancestral home province of Shabwa. Mr Awlaki, a radical American Muslim cleric of Yemeni descent, has been linked to other attacks, including that carried out by US army Maj Nidal Malik Hasan at the Fort Hood army base in Texas in November.
"Mr Awlaki is a problem. He's clearly a part of al-Qaeda in [the] Arabian Peninsula," Mr Brennan, who is UN deputy national security adviser, told CNN last week. "He's not just a cleric. He is in fact trying to instigate terrorism."
Some reports say the cleric was killed just before the Christmas attack, in an airstrike on a suspected al-Qaeda base. However, friends and relatives say he was not harmed in the raid.
'A certain shock'
Confirmation of the meeting between the two men comes as the White House plans to publish a declassified account of the Christmas Day plot.
In an interview for USA Today newspaper, National Security Adviser Gen James Jones said people would feel "a certain shock" that clues about Mr Abdulmutallab's role were not acted on. President Barack Obama "is legitimately and correctly alarmed that things that were available, bits of information that were available, patterns of behaviour that were available, were not acted on", he said.
Mr Obama is expected to address the nation about the incident later in the day and unveil new steps aimed at avoiding further terrorist attacks. Sometimes, it's nice to be able to attach a name to your target. This guy wants to be Bin Laden 2.0. I vote we make him just as dead.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Yemeni security forces, under U.S. pressure to rein in extremists, Wednesday captured a key al-Qaeda leader believed behind threats that saw foreign embassies in Sana'a hastily bolting their doors, police said.
The arrest of Mohammed al-Hanq and two other suspected Al-Qaeda militants at a hospital in Raydah, north of capital, came as Yemen's authorities said al-Qaeda militants were being choked countrywide and forced into "holes."
Hanq had evaded arrest on Monday during a security force raid in Arhab, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Sana'a, in which two of his relatives were killed and three other people wounded
A security official told AFP security forces had Wednesday morning swooped on a hospital in Raydah, 80 kilometers (50 miles), north of Sana'a in Amran province, where the suspects were receiving treatment.
"Mohammed al-Hanq and two others who were wounded were captured in a hospital in Amran," the official said.
Two other al-Qaeda suspects meanwhile turned themselves in to the authorities in the region of Marib, east of Sana'a, on Wednesday, and a third surrendered in Arhab, a security official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A gunfight between the members of Rapid Action Battalion and a gang of criminals in the city's Naya Paltan area early yesterday left an extortionist wounded. Not too many people survive a RAB "shootout". At least, for very long.
Alamgir Hossain, 23, of Hizla upazila under Barisal district, was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with bullet wounds in his leg. "Aaaiiieee! My kneecap!"
He was later shifted to Pongu Hospital.
Rab 3 officials said acting on a tip-off, they went to Culvert Road at Naya Paltan around 12:30 am to nab the criminals. Sensing the presence of the Rab team, the criminals opened fire on the elite force who also retaliated with gunshots triggering the gun battle, said a Rab official.
"At one stage, Alamgir received bullet wounds during the shootout while his accomplices managed to flee," he said. Or, the RAB put a few rounds in his legs as an attention getter. We'll have to wait and see if he turns up in an upzilla alley later.
A revolver along with two bullets was recovered from his possession.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A booby-trapped car rammed into a police vehicle Wednesday and exploded, killing six policemen and wounding 14 in the restive Russian republic of Dagestan, Interfax news agency quoted an official as saying.
Earlier reports said four policemen died in the blast in the North Caucasus region. The spokesman for Dagestan's emergency medical centre said the toll could mount.
The 8:00 am explosion occurred in front of the traffic police headquarters in Makhachkala, the Dagestan capital, a police official told Interfax.
The police car blocked the booby-trapped car as it tried to enter the gate, the official said, adding that the police officers "at the cost of their lives prevented a terrorist attack with an even greater number of victims."
Investigators are examining the scene of the explosion.
Concerns have mounted over increased militant attacks throughout Russia's Caucasus region, where militants have been battling pro-Kremlin local authorities and Russian security forces in a sporadic insurgency.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The man told the police his wife had packed the bag and the bullets were mistakenly put there
Yup, blame it on the 'Little Woman'.
Maybe she was trying to get her hubby 'removed' from her life?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/07/2010 11:28 Comments ||
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#2
How easy would it be for a team of would-be attackers to assemble for a flight somewhere, each member bringing a piece of a weapon, to be assembled in flight?
The US authorities have sought from the Pakistani government an early arrest and extradition of commander Ilyas Kashmiri, the fugitive chief of the Azad Kashmir chapter of the pro-Kashmir Jihadi group, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI).
Kashmiri is being accused of coordinating a suicide attack on the CIA Forward Operating Base of Chapman in the Khost province of Afghanistan on December 31, 2009, which killed seven CIA officers and injured six others.
It was the deadliest single day for the American intelligence agency since eight CIA officers were killed in the 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut. Interestingly, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for targeting the CIA base in Khost, which uses a combination of high-tech satellite technology and human intelligence gathering for carrying out US drone strikes and covert operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The TTP spokesman said in his January 1 claim that the TTP had managed to infiltrate the base with the suicide bomber, who was disguised as a soldier of the Afghan National Army.
According to well-placed diplomatic sources in Islamabad, considered close to the US intelligence sleuths stationed in Pakistan, investigations show that the suicide bombing mission targeting the CIA base in Khost had been planned in the North Waziristan tribal area, which is allegedly sheltering hundreds of the fugitive al-Qaeda and Taliban militants wanted by US intelligence agencies. And the human bomb, which exploded himself at the CIA base in Khost is believed to have been dispatched by Ilyas Kashmiri, the fugitive chief of the HuJI who was reportedly killed in a US drone attack in the North Waziristan area in September 2009 along with Nazimuddin Zalalov, a top al-Qaeda leader. However, Kashmiri resurfaced three weeks later and promised retribution against the United States and its proxies (in his October 13, 2009 interview with a foreign news agency).
According to the diplomatic sources in Islamabad, the Khost suicide bomber has already been identified by the Americans as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi -- a Jordanian national -- who was sent to Afghanistan with the specific mission of joining the Afghan National Army so that he could easily penetrate the CIA base to carry out his suicide mission. Having joined the Afghan National Army last year, Humam reportedly approached an American informant in Khost, saying he wanted to give some vital information to the CIA people about the whereabouts of Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri. As the informer, already identified Ali bin Zaid, took Humam to the Khost Forward Operating Base, the later detonated his explosive vest he was wearing under his clothes, killing seven CIA officers, including the station chief, and wounding six others.
The forward operating bases in Afghanistan usually depend on local Afghans for security. But the Taliban have frequently infiltrated the ranks of Afghan security forces as well as private firms hired to guard US facilities or to perform more menial tasks. The Khost Forward Operating Base is in fact a former Afghan army installation and was used jointly by US and Afghan security forces during their military campaign against the Taliban beginning in 2001. In recent years, the base added an intelligence-gathering function and had a housing compound for the CIA officials. The base was at the heart of a covert program overseeing drone strikes by the agency's remote-controlled aircraft along the Pak-Afghan border, which killed over 700 Pakistani civilians in 45 such attacks carried out in the tribal areas of Pakistan in 2009.
A senior interior ministry official said Pakistani authorities are already trying to hunt down Ilyas Kashmiri for his involvement in several terrorist activities carried out in different parts of Pakistan. No 4 on the most wanted list of the Pakistani Ministry of Interior, Ilyas Kashmiri is a veteran of the Kashmir Jihad and spent several years in an Indian jail. He was arrested after the December 2003 twin suicide attacks on Gen Musharraf's presidential cavalcade in Rawalpindi, but released a few weeks later due to lack of evidence. He later shifted his base to the Waziristan region and joined hands with Baitullah Mehsud to establish a training camp in North Waziristan.
[Dawn] Witnesses identified at least six suspects in connection with the arson attacks in Karachi.
Following the devastating Ashura blast on Karachi's Mohammad Ali Jinnah road which claimed the lives of 43 people, police arrested 10 people suspected of being involved in the ensuing arson.
After initial investigations, Karachi police released four of the suspects, but detained the remaining six for further interrogation.
The six were presented before the Anti-Terrorism Court, where they were identified by witnesses of the attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A suicide bomber killed four Pakistani soldiers on Wednesday near the demarcation line with India in Kashmir, the latest in a spike of attacks in the Pakistan-administered zone.
The bombing came a day after President Asif Ali Zardari visited the area -- a fault line that has sparked two wars with India and distracted Pakistani attention from an expanding Taliban menace along the Afghan border.
The attacker detonated his explosives outside a barracks in Tarar Khal, southeast of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
"It was a suicide attack. The target was the army barracks. We have collected evidence and body parts of the attacker which proves that it was a suicide attack," police official Irfan Masaood Kishvi said.
Sardar Khurshid, another senior police officer in the area, said: "I can confirm that four soldiers were martyred and 11 wounded in the blast."
Kashmir was split into two in the bloody aftermath of independence from British rule over the subcontinent in 1947. India and Pakistan each control a part of the mountainous land but both claim the region in full.
Wednesday's attack was the fourth suicide bombing in Pakistan-administered Kashmir since June. On December 27, a bomber killed seven people outside a mosque in Muzaffarabad and analysts warn that the Taliban are extending their reach.
Militants have killed more than 2,890 people across Pakistan since July 2007, until recently concentrating attacks in the northwest, the neighbouring tribal belt and cities rather than the northern mountains and the east.
The elected leader of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Raja Farooq Haider, condemned the attack in Tarar Khal and blamed Taliban-linked extremists.
"The terrorists have attacked the Pakistan army and the entire Kashmiri nation condemns this attack," he told AFP, confirming the death toll of four dead and 11 wounded.
"A foreign hand is involved in all these incidents. These people are not coming across the line of control but from our western borders," he said.
Militants say their campaign, which has become deadlier over the last year, is to avenge military offensives and Pakistan's unpopular alliance with the United States in the eight-war against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.
On New Year's Day, one of Pakistan's worst bombings killed 101 people at a volleyball match in a key pro-government area of the northwest.
The attacks show militants are trying to maximise pressure on the authorities after an October army operation dislocated the Pakistani Taliban from its stronghold in the tribal district of South Waziristan.
"If they are coming from let's say, these tribal areas, then perhaps the underlying assumption may be that they want to expand their activities to build a greater pressure," said security analyst Hasan Askari.
The United States is putting pressure on Pakistan to do more to eliminate Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants along its border with Afghanistan, but the Pakistani military still eyes India as the primary threat to the country.
"The whole focus of the world is on Pakistan. Regional peace is linked with the resolution of the Kashmir dispute and peace can only come if the issue is resolved," Zardari said Tuesday.
The bulk of Pakistan's armed forces are based in the east of the country, although tens of thousands of troops have been waging offensives against Taliban strongholds on the Afghan border in recent years.
Relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated drastically after the November 2007 attacks on Mumbai, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistani militants and accused "official agencies" of abetting.
India has accused Pakistan of arming and funding militants waging the insurgency in Kashmir, although Islamabad denies all charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Three security personnel embraced martyrdom and 11 others sustained injuries in an explosion at an Army training school in Tararkheil town of Sudhanoti (Palandri) district in AJK on Wednesday, police said.
ìThe Army men who embraced Shahadat in the blast were identified as Naik Shabaan, Asif and Imran Haider,î duty officer of the Tararkheil police station told this correspondent by phone.ìIt could not immediately be ascertained whether it was a suicide attack or a bomb explosion,î the police officer said. Some news agencies later, however, reported that the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber.
The police officer said the explosion occurred at 06:55 am. He said the rescue operation was immediately started and the injured were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital and other hospitals in Rawalakot.
After the blast, security forces cordoned off the area and senior civil and military officials reached the scene to assess the situation. Funeral prayers of the martyred soldiers were offered in the afternoon which was attended, among others, by AJK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan and Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider.
APP adds from Islamabad: President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, AJK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan and Minister for Defence Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar condemned the suicide attack.
In their separate statements, they said such acts of cowardice would not deter the resolve of the government to root out terrorism. They prayed to Almighty Allah to rest the departed souls in eternal peace and grant courage to the bereaved families to bear the loss with equanimity.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador Anne W Patterson also condemned the attack. "We send our sincere condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of those who lost their lives," the ambassador said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A US drone aircraft twice attacked on Wednesday a Taliban training base frequented by foreign militants in a North Waziristan village, killing 17 insurgents and injuring seven others.
A senior government official in Peshawar confirmed the attacks and said that reports reaching his office indicated that 17 militants had been killed in the missile attack on the camp in the village of Sanzalai. The death toll was likely to increase to between 20 and 25, he said. "Whenever a drone attack takes place, foreign militants are among those killed," he said. "We are waiting for details." He said the target of the attacks was a base frequented by foreign militants.
Missiles fired by the drone struck the base in the mountainous village, some 35 kilometres from Miramshah. The area is adjacent to Afghanistan's Paktia province.
The first strike came at around 3.30pm when two missiles hit the compound. The other attack took place an hour later when militants were retrieving bodies and helping the injured, a resident of the village said.
He said the area had been under the control of the Taliban and those killed in the first strike were 'guests', a term locally used for foreign militants.
The United States stepped up drone attacks after a suicide bomber struck a CIA base in Khost, just across the border, killing seven CIA agents.
Agencies add: The attack flattened a fort used by the Taliban for training militants. Just over an hour later, a suspected drone slammed another missile into a group of militants sifting through the wreckage, searching for survivors and picking out dead bodies, security officials said.
The area is a stronghold of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who fought with the Taliban when US-led troops invaded Afghanistan and is reputed to control up to 2,000 fighters. "It was a huge, fort-like mud-house. They were using it as a training centre and the training centre belonged to Hafiz Gul Bahadur," a Pakistani intelligence official said.
This article starring:
HAFIZ GUL BAHADUR
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Bravo....
Don't muslims need to be buried before the next night?
how about every hour for the next 24 if somebody is working in the wreckage - HIT IT!
> 24 hrs should make those 72 virgins kind of hard to reach as they as the mooks become impure.
#3
if you establish that pattern, the wounded will lay there dying while their brave jihadi brothers hide in the perimeter, afraid to venture in. Nice morale booster, listening to the screams and crying
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/07/2010 18:54 Comments ||
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The Viva Palestina aid convoy entered Gaza Wednesday, after it received the approval of Egyptian authorities to bring into the besieged, impoverished coastal sliver several tons of humanitarian supplies.
Several tons won't last long.
The activists entered Gaza through Rafah border crossing. More than 500 international activists accompany the convoy organized by the British-based group Viva Palestina, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Fifty-nine vehicles were not allowed into the strip but the supplies were unloaded and taken through by the activists.
Sweating like the Hebrew slaves of old, under the hot Egyptian sun.
The Egyptian approval came after activists and security forces clashed earlier in the day when Cairo refused to allow part the aid convoy to pass through its land to the Hamas-ruled territory.
More than 55 activists and over a dozen members of the security forces were injured in the clashes. Some sixty convoy-members were also arrested.
Gaza has been under a tight Israeli blockade since June 2007 when the democratically elected Hamas took control of the area. Egypt has come under fire from Arab and Muslim groups
And Turks!
for cooperating with Israel.
British lawmaker George Galloway, who is accompanying the convoy, said that the activists had been forced to renegotiate with the Egyptian authorities.
"We refused this because it's a breach of the agreement which we reached in Aqaba between the government of Egypt and the Turkish side," he said. "It is completely unconscionable that 25 percent of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza, because nothing that goes to Israel ever arrives in Gaza."
First they refused, then... they didn't.
Egyptian authorities had also refused the convoy entry into the country from the Red Sea, forcing it to change course to a Mediterranean port.
Was there a reason for that, or was it just to be mean?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
I was so hoping that the Egyptians would at least crack the noggins of both Galloway and William Ayers. I would love to see them portrayed in the movie Midnight Express II: the Egyptian Prison.
#3
shouldn't that be
Aid convoy 'breaks' Israeli blockade of Gaza
or maybe
Aid convoy breaks Israeli 'blockade' of Gaza
or possibly even
Aid convoy breaks 'Israeli' blockade of Gaza
i mean, since they had permission, other goods are currently going through, and it was Egypt that was holding up the show?
of course, why let trivial things like facts get in the way of good propaganda.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
01/07/2010 15:39 Comments ||
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#4
"we brought you potato salad I made a couple weeks ago! Dig in!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/07/2010 18:55 Comments ||
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#5
Since they like Gaza so much, then let them stay there. For at least a few months.
Let them see the Hamas thugs in action with their very own eyes.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
01/07/2010 23:38 Comments ||
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[Ma'an] Several Palestinians were reportedly hurt in an explosion at a coffee shop in Gaza City on Wednesday evening. Residents reported hearing a blast at the "Tal Al-Qamar" cafe on the ground floor of a 10-story apartment building in the An-Nasser neighborhood of Gaza City. Muawiya Hassanein, the Health Ministry's director of emergency and ambulance services, told Ma'an that several people were injured in the explosion, the cause of which was not immediately clear. "Honey, have you seen my bomb?"
"I hid it in the oven, dear."
"Hokay. What's today's special?"
"Baked meat loaf."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#4
An un-Islamic coffeehouse is one that hasn't paid protection money to the local Islamic crime boss, or has those infidel wimmens werkin there wearing pastries and throngs. ( at least i think they be pastries....)
Around 55 people have been injured in clashes between Egyptian riot police and Viva Palestina activists at the Egyptian port of El-Arish.
The scuffles broke out after Egypt said it would not allow 59 humanitarian assistance trucks of the Viva Palestina convoy to enter Gaza.
Talks in which a delegation of Turkish lawmakers sought to convince Egyptian officials to change their minds proved fruitless.
The convoy arrived in El-Arish to attempt to break the siege of Gaza.
Earlier, Cairo had said it would only allow 157 members of the Viva Palestina convoy, which is led by British politician George Galloway, to drive to Gaza. However, later the Egyptian government agreed to allow 400 of the group's volunteers entry to the Gaza Strip.
The convoy has over 200 vehicles laden with basic food items and medical supplies.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I don't want to get too excited but does the picture at the link look like Gallaway?
Israel inched a step closer to deploying a missile defense system along the border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after the Iron Dome successfully intercepted a number of missile barrages in tests held in southern Israel this week.
The tests were overseen by the Defense Ministry, the Israeli Air Force and the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. which has developed and is manufacturing the Iron Dome, slated to become operational and deployed along the Gaza border in the middle of 2010.
The missile barrages that the system succeeded in intercepting included a number of rockets that mimicked Kassam and longer-range Grad-model Katyusha rockets that are known to be in Hamas's arsenal.
The Iron Dome is supposed to be capable of intercepting all of the short-range rockets in fired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizbullah in Southern Lebanon, by using an advanced radar that locates and tracks the rocket that is then intercepted by a kinetic missile interceptor.
During the test, the radar succeeded in detecting which rockets were headed towards coordinates that were designated as open fields and therefore did not launch an interceptor to destroy them.
The IDF has already established a new battalion that will be part of the IAF's Air Defense Division and will operate the Iron Dome. Prototypes of the Iron Dome have already been supplied to the new battalion which has commenced training with the systems.
The IDF has also located positions along the Gaza border that will be used as bases for the system, which includes a launcher and radar system. After it completes the deployment of the system along the Gaza border, the IDF will begin deploying the system along the northern border with Lebanon.
MOD Dir.-Gen. Pinhas Buchris said that the system would eventually "transform" security for residents of southern and northern Israel.
"The defense establishment continues to be committed to do everything it can to provide all residents of Israel a multi-layered defense against missiles and rockets," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Israel once again shows how brainpower wins in the end despite the problems.
This will be much more important on the Lebanon border. The Gaza missiles are little more than a nuisance.
#4
How much damage will the debris cause when it rains out of the sky? Kassams and katayushas aren't exactly guided weapons in the first place. Although I admit that they're less potent as low-velocity kinetic debris than intact high explosive devices, it doesn't take much to kill an unprotected person in the open. People will still have to tuck and take cover, which means that the terror/stress element of the barrages isn't negated with this system.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
01/07/2010 7:43 Comments ||
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#5
The children and old people of Sderot spend their time in an underground bunker with playground and classrooms because the missile alarms were going off several times a day, American Delight. It was built by Magen David Adom (Israel's 'Red Cross') with donations from all over the world. Pretty much the entire population down there has PTSD from the years of bombardment.
phil_b, "nuisance" is not the right word. I've seen photos of Sderot, and it looks like it's been bombed. Not quite London after the Blitz, but still.
#6
I agree with Mich H: Iron Dome is not the solution. I have a better one. Since the Palestinians never seem to lack money for missiles I propose the following:
1) A single missile fired means cutting all aid. A second missile and then ask for them reimbursing every single penny since 1949 (sixty years and counting living from the western tax payer instead of earning their berad at the sweat of their brows).
2) In case the missile hits something Paestinans will have to pay damages.
3) Send a brigade of 5000 American ambulance chasers to Israel with the mission of helping Israeli citizens in getting gazillions of dollars from the Palestinians in compensation for the stress of years having to run in the middle of the night with their children in their arms.
#7
Alternatively , just throw all Palestinians out of Palestine and then take over the area . I dont care where (in the middle east)the refugees go (surely their lovely mooslim brothers will take care of them lol) . A nice extened area . Screw UN , screw PC , screw M.E. , screw every seething nutjob and more , they deserve it .
Way passed caring who/what motivates paleos to live a better life .. They are incapable after decades of inbreeding .
Way passed caring what the rest of the ungrateful world thinks .
Way passed caring ...
Way
If the Middle East is just going to seethe endlessly about Palestine , then wipe the name off the map , rename it Shalom aka Peace (haha)
Ok ... i can dream .
Posted by: Oscar ||
01/07/2010 9:38 Comments ||
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#8
How much damage will the debris cause when it rains out of the sky? Kassams and katayushas aren't exactly guided weapons in the first place.
I suppose that's been thought of long ago. If they can decide whether or not the trajectory is worth launching an interceptor, then it would seem they can also decide where to intercept it.
A church in Malaysia has been fire-bombed in an attack that gutted its ground floor, church officials said Friday, escalating a dispute over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims.
A fire department official said all stations were on alert for more blazes at religious buildings, ahead of planned nationwide protests Friday by Muslim groups angry over the use of the word as a translation for "God" by Christians.
The three-storey Metro Tabernacle church in suburban Kuala Lumpur, part of the Assemblies of God movement, was set ablaze in the attack which took place around midnight, said church leader Peter Yeow, 62.
Posted by: ed ||
01/07/2010 18:04 ||
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Terrorists Suspected separatist militants detonated two bombs in Thailand's Muslim-majority south Thursday as Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva arrived for a visit, police said.
The first blast was just 100 metres (yards) from where Abhisit was due to open a road later in the day in the town of Yala, and slightly wounded a policeman who was part of the security team for the trip, they said. The second was also in Yala but there were no casualties. Police said they were defusing a third bomb on the road nearby.
Abhisit, who admits he has failed to stem the violence in the south, landed in Narathiwat province and was due to also visit Yala and Pattani provinces during the one-day visit.
In other violence, gunmen on motorcycles Wednesday shot dead a Buddhist man who ran the local meteorology department in a district of Pattani, police said.
A 25-year-old Islamic terrorist militant was shot and killed in Narathiwat provincial town Wednesday after he clashed with a security team that was clearing the area ahead of Abhisit's visit.
Thai authorities have mobilised more than 1,000 security forces plus eight helicopters to protect Abhisit and senior ministers as they open roads, give gifts to children and visit a model village during the trip.
#1
The fact that Jihadists would make southern Thailand, a veritable paradise on earth, one of the front lines in their insurgency is proof of their sheer depravity. The Muslims of southern Thailand are not "oppressed" in any way and have no legitimate grievance that would warrant violence of any sort. I say this because I have been there and seen for myself.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Iranian consul general in the Norwegian capital Oslo has resigned in protest against Tehran's violent repression of opposition demonstrators, public television NRK said Wednesday.
"It was the Iranian authorities' treatment of demonstrators around Christmas which made me realize that my conscience would not allow me to continue in my job," Mohammed Reza Heydari said in comments published on NRK's website.
According to NRK, Heydari had been posted in Oslo for three years.
The Iranian embassy denied the report, insisting that the consul's term had simply come to an end about a month ago.
"His mission has been over for a month and his successor has arrived two weeks ago. We reject the news," an embassy spokesman told AFP.
However Heydari is according to the consulate still in Oslo "on holiday."
"Sometimes they stay longer in the country where they served as diplomats for various reasons, including waiting for the end of school semesters of their children," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told Reuters.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/07/2010 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.
A few simple reminders as we get into the new year:
US intelligence officials believe that the suicide bomb attack that killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan last month was planned with the help of Osama bin Laden's close allies, raising fears that the al-Qaeda leader is enjoying a lethal resurgence. They think that the attack could not have taken place without the prior knowledge and assistance of the Haqqanis, the powerful Taleban group thought to be shielding bin Laden.
[Bangla Daily Star] A gunfight between the members of Rapid Action Battalion and a gang of criminals in the city's Naya Paltan area early yesterday left an extortionist wounded.
[Dawn] A US drone aircraft twice attacked on Wednesday a Taliban training base frequented by foreign militants in a North Waziristan village, killing 17 insurgents and injuring seven others.
