KANDAHAR: Ten people were killed and 30 others wounded on Tuesday when a truck carrying road workers struck a bomb in southern Afghanistan, officials said. The incident happened in rural Panjwayi district in the province of Kandahar.
Ten dead, 30 injured have been sent to the hospital, said Abdul Qayoum Pukhla, provincial health director of Kandahar.
The bombing was confirmed by Panjwayis district chief Fazluddin Agha.
One survivor who did not want to be named said there were a total of 40 people on board the truck.
People working on government projects such as road-building in Afghanistan are frequently targeted by the Taliban and other insurgents fighting for nearly 10 years against the US-led foreign troops and the Western-backed administration. Last week, 36 Afghans were killed when the Taliban attacked a road construction company in the eastern province of Paktia, triggering a gunfight that lasted for hours.
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Excellent rundown on who's doing what over there. From the Guardian no less..
They were welcomed into the fold with great fanfare, the crucial Arab backing for a NATO mission that needed regional allies to give it the stamp of legitimacy. But two months into Operation Unified Protector, a Guardian data gathering exercise has established that the Arab countries involved have made no more than a modest contribution to the aerial intervention in what now appears to be a stalemate civil war.
Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, the three Arab states involved, gave only the briefest of information. Between them, they have 125 personnel in the operation. Qatar has six mirage jets based on Crete and two C17 transporters. The UAE has 12 jets on Sardinia. Jordan has six fighter escort jets and six transport planes.
Together these represent a small fraction of the 300 jets policing the no-fly zone and bombing warehouses, munitions dumps and army units of Muammar Gaddafi's regime. The Guardian understands that none of the three countries has been involved with bombing Libyan targets, sticking instead to "defensive" sorties to enforce the no-fly zone.
None of the three countries would divulge the number of sorties flown. But information from the French defence ministry indicates the Qataris at least have been flying a few joint sorties each week with French fighter jets.
One Whitehall source indicated the three countries had been more useful on the diplomatic, rather than the military, front. "What they have been doing is getting involved in the contact group which is trying to find a political solution to the problem and has been providing support and funding for the rebels," said the source. "That is just as important to the NATO effort. It is very important that Arab nations are involved in that process. They are contributing in different ways and that's probably where they can help most."
At the other end of the scale, the Nordic nations can reasonably claim to be punching well above their weight. Norway and Denmark have both dropped far more bombs nearly 700 between them than the UK. Both have recently targeted "bunker-busting" bombs on Gaddafi's compounds in Tripoli. NATO commanders are believed to have assigned Danish F16 jets to target the building in which Gaddafi's youngest son, Saif al-Arab, was killed on 30 April.
Data shows the US initially dominated the military campaign before taking a back seat and handing over control to NATO on 31 March. France also took a leading role, deploying its aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the head of the British navy, told MPs: "If we had a carrier, it would be there."
The US flew more than 800 sorties during the first week, of which more than 300 were strike sorties. It fired more than 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles from its ships. Britain, the only other country with cruise missiles, fired a small number of the £1m armaments from the submarine, HMS Triumph.
Besides the US, the weight of operations have fallen on the British, Italians, French and Canadians. The British have flown about 1,300 sorties, 25% of the total, followed by the French with about 1,200 and the Italians with 600. The Canadians, who have the HMCS Charlottetown frigate in the region, have taken part in more than 350 sorties.
The data also provides a compelling picture of the targets hit by NATO. More than 800 have been hit in 3,000 strike sorties, the bulk of them (179) in Tripoli, followed by 165 in Misrata, where pro- and anti-Gaddafi forces have been engaged in vicious fighting.
In a campaign echoing the 1999 Kosovo air assault, the first targets were Gaddafi's air defence radar systems and surface-to-air missile sites. The second tier were tanks and heavy weapons approaching Benghazi, Misrata and other coastal towns. Ammunition dumps were common, and soft, targets. At the end of March, British and US aircraft destroyed dumps near Sabha, deep in the desert 500 miles south of the Libyan coast in one of their longest joint bombing runs.
As B1 long-range bombers took off from their base in the US, two Tornados flew from RAF Marham in Norfolk. The US bombers fired 500lb joint direct attack munitions; the Tornados fired Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles (at £800,000 apiece). In total, 40 underground ammunitions bunkers near Sabha were destroyed. Tornados had already flown 3,000-mile round trips on bombing runs from their Norfolk base.
Eight Tornados and 10 Typhoons were soon based at Gioia del Colle in southern Italy after an RAF convoy transported 1,680 tonnes of kit from RAF Wittering. Tornados were armed with Storm Shadows, Paveway IV "precision-guided" bombs and accurate Brimstone anti-tank missiles. Typhoons, in their first ground attack operations, were armed with enhanced Pavey 2 bombs, as the RAF mounted an urgent extra pilot-training programme.
NATO ships have stopped 941 vessels and boarded another 40 while enforcing the arms embargo.
Continued on Page 49
The Arab States will H-A-V-E to play a major role, espec iff POTUS BAMMER + "Globalists" hope to empower so-called OWG-NWO "Regionalism", i.e. TRANS-NATIONAL/STATE REGIONAL GOVT. + REGIONAL STATE ORDER.
ARAB-MUSLIM GOVTS = CHINA = WILL NOT RISE TO ANY MANIFEST DESTINY = DESIRED "GREAT POWER/SUPERPOWER" STATUS BY BEING STATUS QUO ISOLATIONIST.
#2
JM- Bingo- "ARAB-MUSLIM GOVTS = CHINA = WILL NOT RISE TO ANY MANIFEST DESTINY = DESIRED "GREAT POWER/SUPERPOWER" STATUS BY BEING STATUS QUO ISOLATIONIST". Benevolent is the part that is missing. Expansion is still there especially where resources are involved.
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon says the wreckage of the U.S. helicopter destroyed in the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden was returned by Pakistan over the weekend. The helicopter was damaged during the May 2 raid at bin Laden's hiding place in Pakistan, and U.S. commandos blew it up so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.
The U.S. demanded that Pakistan return the remains of the helicopter. Defense Department spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Tuesday it is now back in the United States.
#1
The SEALS would've destroyed the rotor, etc. iff it had been tech-sensitive + couldn't be taken on the trip home - heck, wouldn't surprise me at all iff many of the components were "Made-in-China" anyhoo.
#2
Pakistan has had a bad rap for some time now. They are great craftsmen for example. They made and still do probably some of the finest metal instruments for surgery. I believe they are a complex people who have many conflicts within their country and from the outside. The few I have meet here seemed opinionated but charming.
#3
The few I have meet here seemed opinionated but charming.
When Paks need something from you. Otherwise standoffish, condescending and unstrustworthy.
Al-Tabari hadith: If you [Muslim] are under their [infidels] authority, fearing for yourselves, behave loyally to them, with your tongue, while harboring inner animosity for them . Allah has forbidden believers from being friendly or on intimate terms with the infidels in place of believersexcept when infidels are above them [in authority]. In such a scenario, let them act friendly towards them.
Ibn Kathir: Let us smile to the face of some people while our hearts curse them;
PHILADELPHIA (CN) - The convictions against the so-called Fort Dix Five, a group of New Jersey residents convicted in a plot to attack the military base, should be tossed on the basis of unconstitutional wiretaps and prejudicial evidence, defense attorneys argued in a hearing of the 3rd Circuit. Entrapment, Islamophobia...you know the drill.
The men were arrested in May 2007 while trying to acquire machine guns and assault rifles in an FBI sting operation. Federal investigators had been watching the group since January 2006, when the FBI obtained a videotape of the five men that had been brought to a Circuit City store for copying. The video depicted men shooting guns in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, and shouting "Allah Akbar!" and "jihad in the States." And their fans showed up...
Outside District Court on Monday, a throng of women in robes and multicolored veils argued their case writ large on handmade signs decrying "Entrapment of Muslims" and "Selective Ethnic Prosecution." Don't leave home without it...
Czurada Duka, 52, mother of the three Duka brothers, told Courthouse News she was disgusted by the actions of an informant in the case."He worked for money, but he should be in the place of my sons," she said outside the courthouse. At least two of her sons are serving life sentences at the ultra-secure ADX Florence facility in Florence, Co. Oh, I'll bet that's fun...
Naze Duka said her brothers had simple intentions in trying to buy high-powered weaponry. "Like every man usually is, they were into guns," she said, adding that the video of the Dukas allegedly training for terror in the Poconos was really just a depiction of "boys being boys." Boys being boys...
"They all used to go for one week to get away from their wives," she said. ...and who can blame them for that.
A suicide car bomb attack on a police station in Peshawar has killed four people and has left 22 others injured. The power of the blast flattened the building. Emergency workers are searching for survivors and bodies in the rubble. The building was near Pakistani army facilities and the US consulate.
Pakistani Talibunnies have taken credit for the attack.
"It was a huge blast which completely destroyed the three-storey building," said Liaqat Ali Khan, chief of police in Peshawar. The building housed the police's criminal investigation department.
A Talibunny spokesman said the attacks would continue until US drone strikes and Pakistani military operations have been stopped. "We will further step up these attacks to avenge Osama Bin Laden's martyrdom," said Ehsanullah Ehsan.
JAMMU: Indian security forces have killed a senior Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) terrorist militant in a gunfight in the Indian-held Kashmir, police said on Tuesday. The dead terrorist man was described as a deputy commander of LeT, a militant group blamed by India for the 2008 siege in Mumbai in which 166 people were killed. Police said the terrorist man, known as Amir Khan, was shot on Monday night. Security forces on Tuesday launched an operation to find two other terrorists militants who fledran away escaped from the scene in Poonch district, close to the Line of Control with Azad Kashmir.
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05/25/2011 00:00 ||
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Big news on the Mumbai attack in, of all places, Chicago.
CHICAGO The federal governments star witness at a Chicago terrorism trial revealed more potentially damaging details on Tuesday alleging close cooperation between a Pakistani militant group and the countrys top intelligence agency, telling jurors that he frequently exchanged emails and met with members of both groups a month before the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai.
David Coleman Headley returned to the witnesses stand for a second day in the terrorism trial of a Chicago businessman accused of collaborating in the three-day siege of Indias largest city giving a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and how he was recruited by a member of Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency, known as ISI, to take part in the Mumbai plot.
Headley told jurors Tuesday that he met with both his handlers from Lashkar and ISI in Pakistan in October 2008 one month before the Mumbai rampage that killed more than 160 people including six Americans and his Lashkar contact, Sajid Mir, said militants had unsuccessfully tried to do the attack in September but crashed their boat leaving Pakistan. They also talked for the first time about a separate plot to attack a Danish newspaper that in 2005 had printed cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, he said.
I suggested we only focus on the cartoonist and the editor, Headley testified of a later meeting with Mir. He said, All Danes are responsible for this.
As the governments first and main witness in the trial of his longtime friend Tahawwur Rana, Headleys testimony outlining links between the ISI and Lashkar could inflame tensions between Pakistan and India and place even more pressure on the already frayed US and Pakistani relations. I'm guessing the Indians are taking notes...
It also could add to the questions about Pakistans commitment to catch terrorists and the ISIs connections to Pakistan-based terror groups, especially after Osama bin Laden was found hiding out earlier this month in a military garrison town outside of Islamabad. I don't think there are any questions at all...
Headley pleaded guilty to laying the groundwork for the Mumbai attacks that killed more than 160 people including six Americans, and he agreed to testify against Rana to avoid the death penalty, making him one of the most valuable US government counterterrorism witnesses.
Headleys testimony is a nail in the coffin of US-Pakistani strategic cooperation, said Bruce Riedel, a former White House adviser on Middle Eastern and South Asian issues. Until now his commentary has gotten very little attention outside India, now it will finally get the attention it deserves here.
The Pakistani government has denied the ISI orchestrated the Mumbai attacks, and a senior ISI official said Tuesday that the agency has no links to the terrorists behind the rampage. When asked about the testimony being heard in Chicago, the official said it is nothing. "Lies! All lies!"
On Tuesday, Headley testified that details of planning for the attacks were known by an ISI officer known only by the alias Major Iqbal and Mir. Iqbal said a list would be provided to Headley of possible targets and later he would receive it from Mir. The three men met together in Pakistan in October 2008 where Mir told Headley about the failed attempt on Mumbai. The meetings continued.
In a few weeks if everything went well, they were going to launch a second attempt, Headley testified.
Prosecutors showed emails between the three men some of them forwarded to Rana detailing points on the Mumbai attacks and the aftermath. They wrote in code from ever-changing email addresses including some that came from transliterated Urdu words into English and others from seemingly innocuous phrases like the email handle Get Me Some Books, that Mir used at one time.
When the attacks happened, Headley, who was born Daood Gilani, testified that he got a text message from Mir asking him to turn on the television.
I was pleased, he told jurors, but later he started to worry. I was concerned if our plan had been leaked out.
At this time, Headley said, he was also in more frequent contact with Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, whom prosecutors identified as retired Pakistani military with links to Major Iqbal. Syed was referred to as Pasha.
Rana, who attended medical school in Pakistan, was only brought up periodically throughout testimony, with Headley saying that he debriefed all his plans with Rana. He said they discussed the Mumbai attacks afterward and what they considered a successful mission against Indians.
Rana, a Canadian citizen who has lived in Chicago for years, is accused of giving Headley cover during his time in Mumbai by allowing him to set up a branch of his Chicago-based immigration services business. His name is the seventh one on the federal indictment, and the only defendant in custody. Among the six others charged in absentia are Mir, Iqbal and Pasha.
Rana, who has pleaded not guilty, is also accused of helping arrange travel and other help for Headley, who planned the separate attack that never happened on the Danish newspaper. Defense attorneys have told jurors their client was taken advantage of by his friend and did not know what was in store. But prosecutors have said Rana was not duped and knew of the plans, both in Mumbai and Denmark.
Defense attorneys were expected scrutinize Headleys credibility as a witness, saying he has been motivated to change his story and that he was working for the US government even as he said he was working for Lashkar and ISI.
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#1
WORLD NEWS > DON'T LEAVE AFGHANISTAN, INDIA TOLD US, as they fear that widout US = US-NATO, UN leadership, presence RADICAL ISLAM WILL FILL THE VACUUM, + ISLAMABAD WILL JUST SIT BACK + USE THE "INDIA THREAT" TO NOT INITIATE ANY REFORMS.
IIUC, IOW India is trying hard NOT to tell the US that iff it pulls out, in time it will only have to come back to Pakistan to start over = do what PAK won't.
#3
See also BHARAT RAKSHAK > RANA: MUMBAI ATTACKERS SHOULD BE [post-humously]AWARDED BY PAKISTAN.
Milyuhns-n-Dilyuhns of meritorious PAK MEDALS.
* SAME > HEADLEY: "MAJOR IGBAL" [Bala] OF ISI
IS CHAUDHERY KHAN, 26/11 MASTERMIND.
versus
* SAME > INDIA DOES WANT PAKISTAN TO DISINTEGRATE, irregardless of 26/11 Mumbai Incident or ongoing controversy oer US Abbottabad raid agz Osama Bin Laden.
OTOH ....
* SAME > ANOTHER LeT ATTACK COULD DESTABILIZE INDIA [+ Region = South Asia], LEAD TO WAR: KERRY.
* SAME > WIKILEAKS: US WARNED OF [pre-planned]LeT ATTACK ON INDIA BACK IN 2009, WARNED PAKISTAN, to stop LeT lest India responds militarily agz their country.
POSTERS = LeT is an autonomous branch or arm of the PAK ISI, which infers that while the PAK ISI has a lot of control, influence oer LeT for covert TerrOps = Third-Party proxy attacks agz sovereign India, PAK ISI DOES NOT HAVE ABSOLUTE = COMPLETE CONTROL OER THE GROUP???
Well...fancy that.
KARACHI, Pakistan A police account released Tuesday on the brazen, 18-hour Taliban assault on a Pakistani naval base says there were twice as many attackers as the number claimed by the government and navy, adding to the questions surrounding the deadly incident.
On Monday, after commandos had retaken control of Naval Station Mehran, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said up to six assailants were involved, four of whom were killed and two of whom apparently fled. Although they had earlier estimated the number of militants at between 10 and 15, naval officials also revised their estimate to six attackers.
But police said Tuesday in the first information report that between 10 to 12 attackers were involved. Local police chief Shahrukh Khan said the report was written after consultation with a navy officer. Such a report is a formal part of opening an investigation into the attack.
Many analysts were surprised that just six attackers could occupy part of the base for such a long time against a force of hundreds of commandos and navy marines. Pakistan security agencies are known to sometimes not give full accounts of terrorism incidents, and often hold suspects for months without informing the public.
The fact that the attackers managed to infiltrate so deep into the high-security base led to speculation they may have had inside information or assistance.
#5
Again, the US believes that PAK has secretly modified US-supplied HARPOON anti-ship NLCMS for dedic "Land Attack" missions [India], + P-3's to be the Harpoons standoff carrier/platform for same.
* ION NEWS KERALA > KARACHI TERROR ATTACK [PNS Mehran]"RESULT OF DECLINE OF PROFESSIONALISM OF PAK MILITARY": EDITORIAL [Pak media].
ARTIC > PAK ARMED FORCES must "go back to the Barracks" + rediscover their Military-oriented core values + ethics, + stop its persistent meddling in non-Military related Govt, State Politics, corruptionism for $$$ personal profit, + criminal or malicious harassment of Pak Civilians, Pol Leaders whom don't adhere or kowtow to the PAK Military agendum.
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > PAKISTAN NAVY BASE ATTACK A [dress] REHEARSAL FOR CAPTURING [Pak] NUCLEAR NUKE?, espec PAK NucMats whom are deemed by many international analysts as more vulnerable to MilTerr capture than the more secure PAK LRBMS + NUC WARHEADS.
* SAME > PAKISTAN NAVAL STATION MEHRAN [PNS Mehran] BASE COMMANDER SUSPENDED IN WAKE OF KARACHI TERROR SURGE.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > PAK SECURITY OFFICIAL: MEHRAN TERRORISTS WERE "FOREIGNERS" LINKED TO AL-QAEDA + TALIBAN, i.e. foreign Muslims whom likely were CHECHENS, UZBEKS that traveled to Pak for training + participation in violent jihad???
A soldier in a unit providing security for teachers was killed in an ambush in Yala province on Wednesday morning.
The attack occurred about 7:30 a.m. while a military task force unit was patrolling a local road before vehicles carrying teachers arrived at school. Terrorists Gunmen attacked the patrol with M16 and AK47 rifles. The soldiers returned fire. The gunfight lasted 15 minutes before the attackers fled.
Pvt Chuchart Keawwonghin, 22, took two bullets to the head and body, and died at the scene. Pol Col Chalong believes the attack was by terrorists militants out for revenge after four jihadis separatists, including a senior leader, were killed by a joint police and military action in Yala the other day.
Four soldiers wounded in Yala
Four soldiers of the Yala military task force unit 13 were wounded, two seriously, in a bombing and an ambush in Yala province late Wednesday morning.
The four soldiers were in a Humvee to support their colleagues surrounding a targeted village after being ambushed earlier this morning when suspected terrorists militants detonated a home-made bomb planted under the road's surface. After that the terrorist militant fired at the soldier who fired back. The shootout lasted for ten minutes before the attackers fled.
Muhammad Kusai Sapator, 25, was smoking a cigarette in front of his home when two terrorists gunmen came up to him. Each of them shot at him with a shotgun, hitting him in the head and body, then ran away fled. The victim died at the scene.
Critic of Hizb'allah, Syria and Iran arrested in southern Lebanese city of Tyre. Head of the Arab-Islamic Resistance, which the sheikh claimed has 1,500 fighters, and which he claimed launched rockets against Israel two years ago. This is the first high-level detention on such charges in months, following the big wave of arrests in April 2009, in which dozens were picked up.
May God watch over him, for certainly the men around him will do their worst.
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.
KANDAHAR: Ten people were killed and 30 others wounded on Tuesday when a truck carrying road workers struck a bomb in southern Afghanistan, officials said. The incident happened in rural Panjwayi district in the province of Kandahar.
A soldier in a unit providing security for teachers was killed in an ambush in Yala province on Wednesday morning.
