A coalition airstrike killed more than 20 Taliban insurgents after they had gathered to oversee a public execution in northeastern Afghanistan on Saturday, Afghan officials said.
Some Afghan officials in Kunar Province, where the attack took place, put the death toll much higher, at 40 to 50. NATO said only that at least two dozen insurgents were killed after a joint Afghan-NATO ground operation observed a large gathering of armed men and called in an airstrike.
After the attack, Afghan and NATO officials inspected the site and said no civilians were killed by the bombing, the coalition said.
The bombing took place in the Chapa Dara district of Kunar Province, a remote area close to the border with Pakistan. According to locals and the police chief of the Chapa Dara district, the insurgents had gathered after a quarrel between two families resulted in a death. The victims relatives surrounded those they said were responsible for the death and called in the Taliban to administer justice.
A commander of Uzbekistan Islamic Party was killed by bombardment of NATO forces in Afghanistan yesterday. Mullah Anwar came under bombardment of NATO forces and lost his life in the outskirts of Shakamesh district of Takhar city. According to a NATO press statement said to BNA, in this air attack, several other rebels who work for the Uzbekistan Islamic Party were killed. It should be said that in first, military operation was conducted for arresting of Mullah Anwar by Afghan and NATO forces. According to NATO Mullah Anwar directed terrorist attacks of rebels in the vicinities of Borka and Ashkamesh district of Takhar and Baghlan provinces. On the northern border near Uzbekistan.
According to this statement, Mullah Anwar had a hand in the abduction of the governor and mayor of Ashkamesh district. Governor and mayor of Ashkamesh district of Takhar province were killed in terrorist events last Sunday. Meanwhile the police officials in the north of Afghanistan called killing of this commander useful in betterment of security of peace in Takhar and Baghlan province. In this operation, two members of Uzbekistan Islamic Party with tens kg of explosive devices were arrested as well. Get the pliers and blowtorch.
Four riot police officers were killed near Grozny, the capital of the Russian North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, when their car was attacked, a police spokesman said.
He said, Unknown assailants opened fire from automatic weapons at a police car near the locality of Alkhan-Kala, adding that the incident occurred late on Friday.
Four policemen inside the car died of wounds, he said.
A MISSILE launched from a U.S. drone struck a suspected militant hideout in a tribal region in northern Pakistan where allies of a powerful warlord were gathered Saturday, killing five of his supporters, Pakistani officials said.
The strike in North Waziristan against allies of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a militant commander whose forces frequently target U.S. and other NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, comes amid speculation over whether Pakistan will launch an operation against militants in the tribal region.
The U.S. has pushed Pakistan repeatedly to take such a step and earlier this week U.S. Secretary of DefenCe Leon Panetta told The Associated Press that Pakistan was preparing an operation targeting the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan.
Pakistan has been reluctant to undertake an offensive there, saying its military is already overtaxed by fighting in other tribal areas and parts of Pakistan.
#3
And both our troll's posts have now been erased forever. I'm not sure what it intends to accomplish -- there's no link to be followed by the gullible, nor any message for the otherwise gullible, just strings of more or less random words,
[Dawn] Two workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... , a cable operator and a hairdresser were among five persons killed in separate acts of violence in the city on Friday.
An activist of the MQM was killed by assailants in Makhdoom Shah Colony in Orangi Town Sector 11½.
The victim was identified as Farhan Gilani, 30. He was maimed and being driven to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital when he died. A large number of MQM workers reached ASH on learning about the killing.
Police said following the murder, unknown persons resorted to intense firing in different parts of Orangi Town and forced shops to shut.
Police said the victim belonged to Unit 120 of the party and was in charge of Makhdoom Shah Colony. He lived in Benazir Colony.
Police suspected that the killing was linked to some dispute over Fitra collection.
Another worker of the MQM was killed by suspects near Nagan Chowrangi.
Police said the incident took place at an Eid Bachat Bazaar, where unknown suspects riding a cycle of violence opened fire wounding Adeel, 30, Adnan, 30, and Faisal Siddiqui, 28.
The maimed were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where Adeel died.
Police said the three victims had set up stalls at the Eid Bazaar. Adeel was employed at a private bank.
He was associated with the MQM's Unit 134 and lived in Country Tower apartments.
Cable operator
A cable operator was killed by unknown persons in a Baldia Town locality in the early hours of Friday.
Police said the incident took place in Naval Colony, Baldia Town, where suspects rubbed out Abdul Rahim, 22, at the doorstep of his home.
Police said the victim had returned home after buying food items for Sehri when two assailants riding a cycle of violence shot him dead.
Hairdresser
A hairdresser was killed by unknown persons in Yousuf Goth.
Police said Shahzad Baloch was shot thrice in the chest in his shop.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde... the body of a young man was found in an apartment in Lyari.
Police said the victim was identified as Iqbal, 45, son of Mohammad Khan.
He was a former government schoolteacher.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... government has banned travel of foreigners from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar to southern districts of the province and tribal and semi-tribal regions through Kohat tunnel. Besides, security at the tunnel has been beefed up and all those intending to travel through it must carry their computerised national identity cards.
The standard operating procedure (SOP) in this regard was announced by Home and Tribal Affairs Department, Peshawar, on Friday. It stated that travel of foreigners from Peshawar to Kohat, Hangu, Karak and Bannu districts, and North and South Wazoo agencies through Kohat tunnel had been banned, as for this they would have to pass through the restive Darra Adamkhel, a Frontier Region (FR) of Kohat district, and onwards through Kohat tunnel.
Similar restriction is also meant for all those Pak staff members working with any international or local NGO. The restraint is also applicable in case of other remaining five FRs i.e FR Peshawar, FR Bannu, FR Lakki, FR Tank and FR Dera Ismail Khan ... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ... as well as the seven tribal agencies, including Bajaur, Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... , Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan.
However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... the people will have to obtain prior permission from the Home and Tribal Affairs Department so that necessary NOC and proper security arrangements could be made for them well in advance. Ban on travel through Kohat tunnel is in addition to the restriction already imposed for 10 districts for visiting foreign tourists, diplomats, foreign missions, expatriates and Pak staff members working in NGOs and INGOs with regard to entire seven districts forming Malakand Division, including Swat, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Shangla, Buner, Malakand and Chitral and three southern districts of Hangu, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.
The home department advisory clarified that all ambassadors/foreign missions/diplomats/embassies' officials intending to visit the aforementioned specific areas were advised to route their written requests through the federal ministry of foreign affairs, Islamabad, so that it should reach the provincial government's home department, Peshawar, a fortnight or at least 12 working days in advance, enabling it to process it and obtain security clearance from the quarters concerned and to make proper security/ protocol arrangements for the visiting foreigners/dignitaries.
The government has asked the foreigners/expatriates and Pak staff working for NGOs/INGOs to route their written requests for visiting the abovementioned areas through their respective organizations.
For visiting the rest of the districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, all categories of foreigners might forward their written requests to the home and tribal affairs department, Peshawar, at least five working days prior to their visits so that proper arrangements could be made for their visit.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Esquimeau village our hero was receiving a quick lesson in aeronautics...... to thwart any threat to strategic Kohat Friendship Tunnel two extra army units and sniffer dogs have been deployed there, turning it into a nuisance for a large number of people proceeding to their hometowns for celebrating Eid, sources told Dawn in Kohat on Friday.
The National Highway Authority and security forces have also renewed their request to people to keep their identity cards and papers of vehicles with them for easy passage through the tunnel. The security forces have forbidden travel through the tunnel for those people who did not possess CNIC.
The sources said that this time the authorities had also not opened the hilly track between Darra Adamkhel and Kohat to ease traffic at the tunnel. They said that the villages close to the hilly track on Darra Adamkhel side were still infested with krazed killers, who could cause harm to passengers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Eight faceless myrmidons were killed and four others maimed in a shootout with security forces in Mamozai area of Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... on Friday, while a man died and 14 others suffered injuries in two kabooms in Parachinar.
Confirming the Orakzai incident, officials said that two security personnel were also injured in the clash.
They said that the troops were patrolling Mamozai area when gunnies launched attack from two sides. They said that the forces immediately retaliated and during exchange of fire eight faceless myrmidons were killed and four injured. Two soldiers identified as Akram and Rashid also received bullet injuries. They were taken to military hospital in Thall.
Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising... security forces conducted a search operation in Ghundai area and recovered weapons and ammunition stored in caves.
In Parachinar, one person was killed and 14 others were maimed in two kabooms in Sadda bazaar and Khar Kallay on Friday.
Officials said that the first kaboom took place in Maaz Market, resulting in death of a PCO owner Jehan Zeb Khan and leaving 12
others maimed. One vehicle and three shops were partially damaged in the blast.
Doctors in the local hospital said that five injured people were at death's door.
The second kaboom occurred in Khar Kallay when a tractor hit a landmine, wounding two persons. They were identified as Zabit Khan and Yaqoob Khan. Meanwhile, ...back at the comedy club, Boogie was cracking himself up, but nobody else seemed to be getting the non-stop jokes... security forces defused a bomb planted on Sateen Road.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) has grabbed credit for an attack on a Pak military airbase early Thursday, which left 10 people dead, including a soldier, and damaged at least one Air Force aircraft.
The cut-thoat assault renews questions about security at key military installations, particularly at a base which has been attacked before.
Taliban front man Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed nine heavily armed TTP bully boyz stormed the PAF Minhas airbase at Kamra, located about 70 kms from the capital Islamabad in Punjab's Attock city, sparking an intense shootout lasting almost five hours.
"The attack was launched from two different sides. A team of four members entered from one side and five from the other and than they launched a collective attack inside the camp," Ehsan told Dawn.com, speaking from Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location, confirming that all nine attackers were killed in the assault.
The cut-thoatfront man further claimed that they had achieved their targets and killed "more than a dozen security personnel" inside the base.
PAF officials also confirmed all nine bully boyz had been killed, however, they said only one Pak soldier, Mohammad Asif, had lost his life in the attack.
The Taliban front man also claimed the attackers had destroyed three JF-17 thunder aircraft as well.
PAF officials said that only one of aircraft at the base was damaged in the attack.
Several squadrons of fighters and surveillance planes are believed to be housed at Kamra's Minhas base. Officials also confirmed that over 30 planes were parked at the base, including state-of-the-art JF-17 Thunder fighter jets.
The airbase is a heavily guarded compound with the air force's Kamra Aeronautical Complex also in its vicinity, where Pakistain assembles and overhauls JF-17 Thunder fighter jets in collaboration with China. According to reports, at least 11 Chinese engineers were working at the Kamra Aeronautical Complex.
All Chinese and others foreign engineers and technicians involved in co-production of Chinese and Pakistain JF-17 Thunder aircraft project were shifted to a high profile secure location, official sources told Dawn.com, adding that the engineers were not present near the attack area.
Early morning attack
Although the attack took place at about 2 am, it is likely many of the soldiers on the base were awake for prayers or breakfast during the fasting month of Ramazan.
"The base has been cleared. The operation has been completed," a PAF front man said after over five hours of fierce shootout between bully boyz and Pak military commandos.
Although the TTP front man claims the bully boyz attacked the base from two sides, it was not clear how the attackers managed to enter the sprawling base.
The gunnies disguised themselves in uniforms armed with automatic weapons, grenades and boom jackets, the air force said.
"Other myrmidons then fired RPGs from outside the base boundary wall. As a result one PAF aircraft got damaged," it added in a statement.
Special Forces and police were scrambled to the scene. Gunfire, rocket and hand grenade kabooms were heard during heavy festivities. One officer told news agency AFP that he saw flames after waking up for his pre-dawn meal.
"There was an announcement by megaphone for soldiers not to move from the barracks and we were forbidden from going to the area where I saw the fire," he said.
"The attackers were wearing security force uniforms but I can't specify of which force uniform they were wearing," he added. "One body of a jacket wallah strapped with explosives has been found close to the impact area."
Base commander, Air Commodore Muhammad Azam, who led the operation against the attackers, was maimed, but is in stable, pH balanced condition, said the front man. One other security official also received injuries.
Revenge for bin Laden's death
Taliban front man Ehsan claimed the cut-thoat organization had carried out the attack "to avenge the deaths of the late Osama bin Laden ... who has left the building... , the TTP Amir Baitullah Mehsud and other fighters who had been killed by the Pak security forces."
Pak forces are fighting a challenging war on their soil against Islamist bully boyz based, including al Qaeda and its offshoots and Pakistain's own version of Talibs.
The front man claimed the Taliban would continue to target security installations "until the establishment of a true Islamic state in Pakistain."
Investigations ordered
Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt has ordered investigation into the incident.
The Air Chief Marshal summoned a meeting today at Air headquarter Islamabad to analyse the situation after the attack and to mull over the initial intelligence reports. The meeting would be attended by top leadership of Pakistain Air Force.
Chief of Kamra aeronautical complex and Base Commander will brief the meeting.
The government and military's top leadership, including President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... , Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaque Pervez Kayani ... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI... and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf were notified of the attack, and the operation was being closely monitored by the army chief.
President Zardari strongly condemned the attack and expressed government's resolve to eliminate terrorism.
Intel of possible attack
In recent weeks, military intelligence had warned of the possibility of such an attack on military installations. However, a hangover is the wrath of grapes... there was no specific information about an attack being targeted at the Kamra base.
This is not the first time that Kamra has been the target of a cut-thoat attack. On Oct 23, 2009, a suicide bomber went kaboom!" at the entrance of the Pakistain Aeronautical Complex in Kamra. Two security officers and six other people were killed in the attack.
Last year, six Taliban gunnies attacked a naval base in Pakistain's biggest city Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden. At least 10 military personnel were killed and 20 maimed in the 16-hour assault.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A bomb went kaboom! near a vehicle of local security forces in Quetta, killing four including two officials and injuring three others, DawnNews reported early on Saturday.
According to sources, the attack was conducted through an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), planted at Qambrani Road.
An eye-witness said the blast was so powerful that it shook all nearby buildings.
The law enforcement agencies cordoned off the area and found a vehicle full of explosives during a search they were conducting after the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The only terrorist who died outside the boundary of the PAF base here on Thursday killed himself to evade arrest after police surrounded the mound where he was holed up in order to attack the sentry post. He attacked with an AK-47 rifle but the two personnel at the post remained safe.
The attacker had crept onto the mound in front of the post about 100 metres from there when his accomplices were busy cutting wires to provide cover, but security personnel alerted before he could select the targets and he had to remain in a natural trench on top of the mound for four hours before he was surrounded by police.
"I think he was maimed either in firing by the sentry post or by police reinforcements," an official said.
Taking advantage of darkness, the man took position at the mound while a group of attackers used a four-foot ladder to make an opening in the three-foot barbed wires and jumped into the premises.
After the security operation successfully ended in late afternoon, a group of villagers sitting tense under trees in a village graveyard said the spot to cut wires had been carefully selected because it was between two sentry posts and the visibility there was poorest due to dim light.
But the villagers were cautious enough to clarify their own position.
"These were not local people and we have never been involved in any wrongdoing," Abdul Moid of Kamra Chota village said.
"We have always cooperated with the authorities and if anything wrong is seen we inform police or the FIU."
Another resident whose house is located not far from the boundary wall said: "We have always considered them (PAF) as brothers and defenders of the nation. Now the cut-throats scaled the wall just opposite my house. This is really depressing for us."
Kamra Chota, located at the rear of the base and near the villages of SLearned Elders of Islamn Makhan and Kamra Bara, is the least developed among the three and the land there is less fertile.
Though poor, the people of the village were peace-loving, cooperative and decent, local police and intelligence personnel told this news hound.
As the operation continued to subdue the infiltrators, a group of federal security personnel went about in the village to map the area and the mound where the attacker was holed up.
Looking at the marks the security personal said that the attack was not an action in isolation and it was clear that controllers were present somewhere around.
Most security analysts and experts speaking on the electronic media acknowledged an intelligence failure and also blamed the local authorities, especially Punjab police, for not keeping an eye on adjoining localities.
The area falls in the jurisdiction of the Karma police post under the Attock Saddar cop shoppe. The post has a huge area to cover, including a new Sanjwal Road that leads to Pakistain Ordnance Factories (POF) and has link towards the Karma base.
But, headed by a sub-inspector, the post has only nine personnel and one van to contain crime, handle local disputes and maintain round the clock vigil.
"It is always easy and customary to blame police for everything," a policeman deputed at the post said.
"Everybody is talking about an intelligence tip about an attack on Kamra, but even the fuel allocation for the Elite Force has been cut and they have reduced patrolling during nights."
Local people acknowledged that there were supporters of terrorism, including Taliban, in nearby villages.
"We are all against the Taliban and have ideological differences with them," Mohammad Rizwan of Kamra Chota said. "However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... there are issues in Kamra Bara and there are also many outsiders like imams of mosques."
Since there is only one way to Kamra Chota through SLearned Elders of Islamn Makhan and Kamra Bara and the attackers were not inside the former village they must have come from outside. One can easily guess that the attackers used a vehicle to go to the village graveyard and moved to positions.
"It is unrealistic to imagine that a group of people would be walking with loads like shoulder-launched rockets, ladder, guns and kaboom on the streets on the Shabeena when almost everybody is awake," a security official said. Why? What's unusual about that in Pakistain?
In Kamra Bara, one sees a couple of mosques and seminaries with flags of the banned The term "banned" has a different meaning in Pakistain. I think it's synonymous with "ummm..." Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain ...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts... hoisted on them and locals say there is a breed of new holy men in the village who do not respect traditional norms. So there's the mosque, flying the flag of the "banned" organization, and nobody does anything about it. They don't even make 'em take the flag down.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Wouldn't a grenade in the trench have ended this pretty quickly? I'm just sayin'...
[Dawn] A bomb struck a bus taking Shia Mohammedans to a protest rally near Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's Safari Park on University Road on Friday, killing one man and wounding 11 others, police said.
The attack came one day after 20 Shias were hauled out of vehicles in the northwest and rubbed out by gunnies dressed in military fatigues.
"A low-intensity bomb planted near a bus stand in Gulistan-e-Jauhar neighbourhood went kaboom! and hit a car and a bus," senior police official Shahid Hayat told AFP.
"The bomb killed a man in the car and injured 11 others, most of whom were bus passengers," Hayat said.
The bus was carrying around 40 Shias to a rally marking solidarity with the Paleostinians and to demonstrate against Thursday's sectarian killings.
Police said it was unclear if the Shias were targeted in Bloody Karachi.
"We can't say it was aimed at the bus as the bomb mainly hit the car. But we are investigating," said a police official on the condition of anonymity.
Bloody Karachi is Pakistain's financial capital. Ethnic, sectarian and politically-linked violence has killed at least 1,100 people so far this year in the city, according to Pakistain's leading human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... organization.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/18/2012 00:00 ||
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A spate of bombings and gun attacks that killed at least 53 people in Iraq overshadowed preparations Friday to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, amid warnings that insurgents could strike again.
The violence on Thursday, the deadliest in a single day since unrest last month killed 113 on July 23, struck 15 cities and towns nationwide and left 260 wounded in more than a dozen explosions and shootings across the country. The latest unrest takes the overall death toll from violence this month to 198, according to an AFP tally based on security and medical sources.
The deadliest violence on Thursday struck in and around Baghdad, where 26 people were killed in a series of bombings.
In the predominantly Shia north Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City, 11 people were killed and 41 wounded by an evening explosion, while six people were killed and 26 wounded by a car bomb in the Husseiniyah district, also in the north of the capital, security and medical officials said.
North of Baghdad, gunmen with silenced weapons attacked a checkpoint in Massud, killing at least six soldiers and wounding seven others, security forces and medical officials said. And three other people were killed and 11 wounded by twin blasts in the east Baghdad neighbourhood of Zafraniyah.
In Tal Afar, north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt killed six people and wounded 10 others, police Second Lieutenant Abed Ghayib and Dr Mohammed Tawfik said.
A series of attacks in Kirkuk province, north of Baghdad, killed nine people.
In the town of Daquq, a suicide attacker blew himself up at an anti-terrorism departments compound, while in the provinces eponymous capital, at least four car bombs were set off across the city including two at the offices of the state-owned North Oil Company.
I came to investigate one of the attacks near the company compound, said police Colonel Abdullah Kadhim, head of Kirkuk citys sniffer dog unit. Suddenly, another bomb went off near me, and it damaged lots of cars and company property inside the parking lot.
Provincial health chief Sadiq Omar Rasul put the toll from the attacks in Daquq and Kirkuk city at eight dead and 56 wounded. Provincial police Brigadier General Sarhad Qader said the victims included six police officers who died in the Daquq attack.
Also in Kirkuk province, two bombings near the home of a police captain in the town of Dibis killed his brother and wounded four others, including the captain himself, police and a doctor at nearby Kirkuk hospital said.
The violence in ethnically-mixed Kirkuk city was concentrated in its Kurdish-majority areas, and came on the anniversary of the founding of Iraqs most powerful Kurdish party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
In Kut, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded on Thursday evening, police Colonel Dhargham Al Assadi said. Five people were killed and 70 others wounded, according to Dhia Al Din Jalil Al Ibboudi, the head of the Kut health directorate.
Attacks also struck Al Garma, Al Baaj, Badush, Tuz Khurmatu, Mosul, Taji, Khales and Baquba, leaving seven dead and dozens wounded.
A day earlier, 13 people were killed in attacks north of Baghdad.
On Monday, British security firm AKE Group warned that terrorists in Iraq may be planning mass casualty explosive attacks against large gatherings of civilians to mark the end of Ramadan later this week.
We havent received any specific intelligence on the matter but they (insurgents) may be saving up their willing bombers for the closing period of the month, due around 17-18 August, AKE analyst John Drake said.
Official figures put the number of people killed in attacks in July at 325, the highest monthly death toll since August 2010.
Miss us yet?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/18/2012 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, security forces have incarcerated I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! a senior Salafi sheikh who was injured in June in an Israeli Arclight airstrike, a Salafi leader said Friday.
Sheikh Abu Suhaib Rashwan was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! Wednesday as he left a hospital, where he was recovering from wounds sustained on June 20 in Israeli shelling on the southern Gazoo Strip, Abu Abdullah al-Muhajir said in a statement.
Al-Mujajir said Hamas forces had cracked down on Salafis in Gazoo since an attack in Egypt's Sinai in which 16 Egyptian officers were killed on Aug. 5. Several Salafis have been summoned for interrogation since the incident, he said.
"We are not responsible for the Sinai attack," he said, adding that jihadi Salafis in Gazoo aimed "to fight Israel."
Salafi Jihadi, the biggest jihadist group in Sinai, has also denied involvement in the incident.
"We have never raised our weapons against the Egyptian army," the group said in a statement Thursday, adding that its true fight was with the "Zionist enemy," Israel.
The statement said other jihadist groups, which it did not name, were behind past attacks on Sinai's gas pipeline that delivers gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan.
The group also said Sinai jihadists had fired rockets at Israel in the last few year. Egypt had repeatedly denied that rockets had ever been fired from Sinai into Israel.
In Gazoo, Hamas has launched several crackdowns on armed salafi groups since it took control of the enclave in 2007, notably following attacks on women and Christians.
In 2009, Hamas raided a mosque and killed 28 people after a Salafi imam declared an Islamic emirate in Gazoo.
[An Nahar] A member of the armed wing of Gazoo's ruling Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement died when a bomb he was guarding went kaboom! accidently, the Paleostinian bad boy group said on Friday.
The victim, Majed Khalout, was killed when the bomb went kaboom! as he was patrolling the site where it was stored, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
Allah clearly made his opinion known. It is he who chooses the movement of the molecules, you know.
Witnesses said the incident occurred in a northern district of Gazoo City.
A front man for the Israeli army said he was not aware of the kaboom.
Earlier this month, another member of the Brigades died when a bomb went kaboom! in the car in which he was travelling in west Gazoo City.
The Israeli military said it was not involved in that incident.
#2
Psssssst...Hey, Mahmoud. Got ya bomb parts. Anything ya want. Best prices in town. Whaddya say?
Posted by: The MOSSAD ||
08/18/2012 2:10 Comments ||
Top||
#3
GREAT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY !
A British Engineer just started his own business in Afghanistan.
He's making land mines that look like prayer mats. It's doing very well.
He says prophets are going through the roof.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
08/18/2012 20:33 Comments ||
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Three members of Philippine security forces were wounded in an attack staged by breakaway Muslim terrorists rebels last night.
Col. Prudencio Asto, regional military spokesman, said followers of Ameril Umbra Kato of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters attacked a military detachment around 11:30 p.m. in the village of Bagan in Maguindanao Province. A 30-minute gun battle broke out, leaving three enlisted soldiers injured.
Asto said, "Our troops managed to repel the rebels'harassment. Three of our soldiers sustained wounds but out of danger."
[An Nahar] Over 2,000 Syrians, including one defecting general, fled to Turkey on Thursday after a Syrian air strike on the northern rebel bastion of Aazaz in northern Syria, a Turkish diplomat said Friday.
The latest group of 2,204 people brought the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey to more than 62,000, the diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The last two weeks have seen a dramatic increase in refugee flow to Turkey triggered by fierce festivities between regime forces and rebel fighters for Syria's second biggest city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... .
The latest exodus of refugees including many injured came after a Syrian Arclight airstrike on a heavily populated area of Aazaz, just north of the main battleground city of Aleppo and a few kilometers from the Turkish frontier.
Turkey has been one of the main regional powers denouncing Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... 's regime and is being used as a rear base by several rebel groups.
Turkish officials decline to give an exact number of defecting generals in camps, saying that some have been going back across the border to join in the fight against the Assad regime.
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08/18/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Syrian forces pounded rebel hubs in the northern city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... and battled opposition fighters around Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... on Friday, activists said, as the U.N. reported a surge in the number of people fleeing.
And despite the imminent departure of the observers, the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... announced that veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi will take over as international envoy from Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... , who quit earlier this month.
On the ground, violence was also reported in other towns and villages across the country, with the bloodletting showing no signs of any let-up a day after the United Nations formally called time on its observer mission.
"The violence and the suffering in Syria must come to an end," U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said in a statement announcing the appointment of Brahimi.
Ban called on the international community to give "strong, clear and unified" support to the new envoy, after Annan complained that his mission had been mission had been hamstrung by the deep rift on the U.N. Security Council between the West and traditional Damascus allies Beijing and Moscow.
But in sign that the divisions remain as large as ever, Washington called for clarifications on Brahimi's mandate and Moscow called off a meeting on the conflict that had been planned for Friday after Western and Arab governments said they would not attend.
On the ground, at least 72 people were killed as the regime continued its onslaught on Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human rights, a watchdog which has a network of activists on the ground.
The army clashed with rebels near the main military airport in Damascus and shelled southern parts of the capital as well as areas of the commercial city of Aleppo and the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, the Observatory said.
Deadly violence was also reported in the provinces of Homs and Daraa, the cradle of the uprising that began with peaceful protests in March 2011 but has escalated into an increasingly vicious battle between armed rebels and government forces.
Opposition factions reported that 65 bodies had been found dumped on a rubbish tip in a town near Damascus, claiming the victims had been bound, executed and set on fire by pro-government forces.
The Syrian Revolutionary Command Council issued a poor quality video which showed, some of the bodies were in just underwear or half-dressed, their limbs splayed apart, and hands tied behind their backs. Many were charred beyond recognition.
"The victims were handcuffed, extrajudicially executed and burned by Assad forces," the SRGC said in a statement.
It is impossible to independently verify such claims as journalists are unable to report freely in Syria.
With the international community still deeply divided over how to end the conflict, the U.N. said the number of Syrians seeking refuge in neighboring countries had now soared to at least 170,000.
"There has been a further sharp rise in the number of Syrians fleeing to Turkey," the U.N. refugee agency said.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... 's regime to be "smashed fast" as he visited Turkey's largest refugee camp near the border.
"After hearing the refugees and their account of the massacres of the regime, Mr. Bashir al-Assad doesn't deserve to be on this earth." he said.
Russia rejected a proposal to set up no-fly zones to help fleeing civilians after the United States said it was ready to consider the move.
"You have to solve citizen security issues using methods put in practice by international humanitarian law," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Sky News Arabia.
"But if you try to create no-fly zones and safety zones for military purposes by citing an international crisis -- this is unacceptable," he said.
More than 23,000 people have died since the revolt against Assad's iron-fisted rule broke out, according to activists, while the U.N. puts the toll at around 17,000.
Assad has described the conflict as a battle for the very survival of his minority Alawite-led regime against a foreign "terrorist" plot aided by the West and its allies in the region.
But he has faced a string of high level defections, including by prime minister Riad Hijab and senior general Manaf Tlass, and a kaboom that killed four security chiefs.
"It is clear that both sides have chosen the path of war... and the space for political dialogue and cessation of hostilities and mediation is very reduced at this point," U.N. assistant secretary general for peacekeeping Edmond Mulet said.
And in a damning report this week, a U.N. panel said government forces and their militia allies had committed crimes against humanity including murder and torture, while also accusing the rebels of war crimes but to a lesser extent.
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08/18/2012 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 commander of Uzbekistan Islamic Party was killed by bombardment of NATO forces in Afghanistan yesterday. Mullah Anwar came under bombardment of NATO forces and lost his life in the outskirts of Shakamesh district of Takhar city. According to a NATO press statement said to BNA, in this air attack, several other rebels who work for the Uzbekistan Islamic Party were killed. It should be said that in first, military operation was conducted for arresting of Mullah Anwar by Afghan and NATO forces. According to NATO Mullah Anwar directed terrorist attacks of rebels in the vicinities of Borka and Ashkamesh district of Takhar and Baghlan provinces.
Two workers of the 
Wazoo
Mohmand
Orakzai Agency
[Dawn] The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) has 
President Asif Ali 
A bomb 
[Dawn] The only terrorist who died outside the boundary of the PAF base here on Thursday killed himself to evade arrest after police surrounded the mound where he was holed up in order to attack the sentry post. He attacked with an AK-47 rifle but the two personnel at the post remained safe.
A bomb struck a bus taking Shia 
[Ma'an] 
A member of the armed wing of 
Over 2,000 Syrians, including one defecting general, fled to Turkey on Thursday after a Syrian air strike on the northern rebel bastion of Aazaz in northern Syria, a Turkish diplomat said Friday.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Syrian forces pounded rebel hubs in the northern city of 
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
