PAKISTANI and US troops exchanged fire along the Pakistani-Afghan border overnight after two US military helicopters came under fire, a US military spokesman said.
Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said Pakistani soldiers at a border checkpoint were seen firing on two US OH-58 Kiowa helicopters covering a patrol of Afghan and US troops about 2km inside Afghanistan.
"The ground forces then fired into the hillside nearby that checkpoint, gained their attention, which worked,'' Rear Admiral Smith said.
"Unfortunately, though, the Pak unit decided to shoot down a hillside at our ground forces. Our ground forces returned fire.''
Rear Admiral Smith, a spokesman for the US Central Command, said no one on either side was hit in the exchange, which occurred in late afternoon, and the helicopters never fired any rounds.
"The whole thing lasted about five minutes,'' he said.
"It all ended quickly.''
The Pakistani military said its troops had fired warning shots at two helicopters which were "well within Pakistani territory".
But Rear Admiral Smith and Pentagon officials said the helicopters were in Afghan air space.
The ground unit that spotted the Pakistanis firing at the helicopters consisted of a small US training team embedded with an Afghan border police unit, he said.
But at the United Nations in New York today, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said Pakistan's military was firing "flares" to warn the helicopters about the location of the border with Afghanistan.
Mr Zardari, who was beginning a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, contradicted the accounts that the US helicopters had come under small arms fire inside Afghan territory.
"You mean the flares," he replied when asked about the US accounts, adding the flares were "to make sure that they know that they have crossed the border line".
Sometimes the border is so mixed that they don't realise they have crossed the border," said Mr Zardari, seated opposite Dr Rice in a luxury hotel.
As reporters filed out of the room, Dr Rice told Mr Zardari: "The border is very, very unclear, I know."
Later, Mr Zardari told the UN General Assembly that Pakistan would not allow its sovereignty to be violated by its allies.
"Just as we will not let Pakistani's territory to be used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our neighbours, we cannot allow our territory and our sovereignty to be violated by our friends," he said.
#4
"Just as we will not let Pakistani's territory to be used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our neighbours, we cannot allow our territory and our sovereignty to be violated by our friends," he said.
Words, words, words...
Barack Obama and Zardari have something in common.
They way they use words, words come to not mean much.
In fact there words seem to be meaningless.
To Obama and zardari words are no more than political hot air to be consumed by their Kool-Aid drinking patrons.
Since no one is in charge of Pakistan, the axiom must be true.
Since Pakistan can't control its frontier, it can neither stop terrorists nor other forces should they intervene.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Pakistani troops fired at American reconnaissance helicopters patrolling the Afghan-Pakistan border Thursday, heightening tensions as U.S. steps up cross-border operations in a region known as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaida militants.
Two American OH-58 reconnaissance helicopters, known as Kiowas, were on a routine afternoon patrol in the eastern province of Khost when they received small arms fire from a Pakistani border post, said Tech Sgt. Kevin Wallace, a U.S. military spokesman. There was no damage to aircraft or crew, officials said. "They did not cross the border and they did not fire back," Wallace said. U.S. forces and Pakistan's military "are working together to resolve the matter," a NATO statement said.
Pakistan's military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Pakistan's military was awaiting a full report from Afghanistan on Thursday's shooting, but that Pakistani units had "very clear" orders not to fire across the border. "We are getting it investigated," he said.
In Washington, a U.S. official said the U.S. coalition in Afghanistan immediately demanded an explanation from Pakistan, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
#1
NEW YORK - Pakistan's new president says his military fired only "flares" or warnings, at foreign helicopters that he claims crossed the border from Afghanistan into his country.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told U.S. reporters Thursday that his forces fired only as away to warn the helicopters that they had crossed the border. Zardari said that it's often difficult to tell just where the border is.
Next time, maybe a little 30mm cannon return fire. Just to say..."thanks".
#6
Look closer. Probably in support of infiltration or smuggling.
Posted by: ed ||
09/25/2008 13:46 Comments ||
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#7
The president of Pakistan is a civilian. He knows only what he is told.
What is "small arms fire" with regard to a Kiowa/OH-58 reconnaissance helicopter? How much more serious than kids taking potshots at tin cans with an air rifle?
#8
the outpost should not exist anymore even if they did fire too tell them they had crossed the border. Not too mention they don't care who else crosses it
#10
See, this is all because Sarah Palin knows nothing of diplomatic relations. When a Pakistani leader says your are "gorgeous", by golly, you better hold him tight, or he will have his people fire on your people.
#11
TW, small arms fire (rifle and light to medium machine gun fire) is able to do the Kiowa serious (and possibly mortal) damage. The Kiowa is unarmored and very thin skinned. That said, they are fairly hard to hit and reasonably maneuverable.d backup
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/25/2008 15:44 Comments ||
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#12
Thank you, Whiskey Mike. In other words, exactly as dangerous as to the tin can when kids are taking potshots with air rifles. ;-) You share so generously of your knowledge, and you know how much I love that!
#13
I think we ought to annihilate any border post firing on our forces. How many border posts will be wiped out before they learn a lesson that we are not to be triffled with.
Alqaeda, Pakitalies, and unreconstructed taliban are busy planning attacks on the West from the FATA and Northwest provinces and we're supposed to allow them go about their plans for an attack on our homeland?
#14
"Blazing Saddles"quote,
Don't shoot him, (Mongol) you'll only make him mad.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/25/2008 18:06 Comments ||
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#15
OH-58 Kiowa. The co-pilot often times has a M-4 next to him and there have been many confirmed kills by co-pilots with their M-4s as the Kiowa flies so low he can use it. As WM said, one 7.62 round in the right place can bring it down. The cockpit has no protection and the crew are the easiest part to hit.
However, since the Kiowa is so maneuverable and quick, the crews love them and are fearless flying into areas that they shouldn't be in and usually come out with just a bullet hole or two.
I know us infantry guys love 'em.
(AKI) - The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a bomb blast that killed two people in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday.
The bomb blast is believed to have targeted Kabul's police chief of criminal investigations, Ali Shah Paktiawal, who was wounded in the attack. An Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman said two of the police official's bodyguards were killed.
The explosion occurred as police were investigating the scene of a crime, where three officers were killed by a roadside bomb the previous night.
This article starring:
Ali Shah Paktiawal
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Scores of Somali civilians have fled their homes as fighting intensifies between African Union troops and insurgents in the capital. Officials say an estimated 16,000 people have left their homes in Mogadishu for safer places.
Mogadishu has been the scene of escalating violence since Monday after the city came under attack by insurgents who fired mortars at the capital's main airport and the presidential palace. They also fired mortars at the AU base in south of the city.
On Tuesday, some 60 civilians were killed in the crossfire between AU soldiers and militants at Mogadishu's Bakara market.
According to a Press TV reporter in Mogadishu, the sounds of deafening gunfire could be heard throughout the city and civilians were fleeing their homes on minibuses, donkey carts or on foot.
"I am moving because I cannot endure the sound of the mortar fire. I don't know where to move to but I'm looking for a peaceful place for my family to live in," a Mogadishu resident said.
"I have escaped from my house because throughout last night artillery shells had been pounding on us," another resident said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#5
Maybe they can all move to Sudan, and be the target of the Lord's Resistance Army.
Seriously, something needs to be done in Somalia, I just don't know exactly what at this point. The Ethiopian military doesn't seem to have the expertise for counter-insurgency operations, and there aren't any military forces available that do. Crushing Eritrea and seriously breaking Sudan might help, but the pipeline from the Saudis and Iranians is probably still in place.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/25/2008 13:25 Comments ||
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#6
Quit feeding them and they will settle down.
Posted by: ed ||
09/25/2008 13:48 Comments ||
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Sudanese forces were laying siege on Wednesday to a remote desert hideout where bandits are holding 19 people captive, including European tourists, but said they would not storm the area. The tourists, along with Egyptian drivers, guides and a guard, were snatched by masked gunmen on Friday during a desert safari to view prehistoric art around Gilf el-Kabir in southwestern Egypt and then taken to Sudan.
A Sudanese official said the hostages were alive and that negotiations were continuing with the kidnappers, who have reportedly demanded a ransom of up to 15 million dollars.
Sudan said on Tuesday its forces "are besieging the area," a no-man's land straddling the Sudanese, Libyan and Egyptian borders.
Is that a Saoodi-style 'besieging'?
"Their position has been pinpointed and there is coordination between Sudan and Egyptian authorities in this regard (but) there is no intention of storming into the area so as to preserve the lives of the kidnapped persons," foreign ministry undersecretary Mutrief Sadiq said.
An Egyptian security official told AFP the kidnappers were "most likely Chadian" after Sudan said they were Egyptian nationals. Sudan has said the group is being held 25 kilometers (17 miles) inside its territory at Jebel Uweinat, or mountain of small springs.
Egypt, which has sent a team to Sudan to try to secure the release of the hostages, has said the hostages are in good health and have enough food and water. The tourism ministry in Egypt, which relies heavily on earnings from foreign visitors, has said it was "an act of banditry not of terrorism."
"No, no, certainly not!"
Egypt has also denied reports the kidnappers had threatened to kill the hostages if any attempt were made to rescue them, in particular to "reach them by aircraft."
Sudan has authorized Egypt to use aircraft to "chase the kidnappers of tourists," the Sudan Media Center, which is close to the intelligence services, reported on Wednesday, without elaborating.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
North Korea plans to restart nuclear fuel processing next week and has banned international inspectors from its Yongbyon reactor, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced Wednesday.
Acting on a North Korean request, inspectors from the Vienna-based agency removed all their surveillance equipment and seals from the reactor Wednesday and will have no further access to the reprocessing site, the IAEA said.
Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the IAEA, told his board that North Korea intends "to introduce nuclear material to the reprocessing plant in one week's time."
North Korea's action comes after several weeks of increasingly defiant threats that it would soon restart its nuclear program. The United States and five other nations are trying to persuade the reclusive and poverty-stricken Stalinist state to abandon its nuclear program in return for food, fuel and a phased end to diplomatic isolation.
Earlier this month, though, North Korea angrily announced that it is no longer interested in being removed from a U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism. Press reports in South Korea said last week that North Korea was testing a new engine for an intercontinental missile with sufficient range to hit targets on the West Coast of the United States.
Coming at a time when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is believed to be ailing from a stroke he suffered in mid-August, the IAEA announcement is the strongest signal that North Korea might be turning its back on negotiations. Still, brinkmanship and over-the-top rhetoric have long been part of North Korea's negotiating style.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters at the United Nations on Wednesday that the North Korean announcement would not end the efforts by the United States and five other nations to negotiate an end to the country's nuclear program, Reuters news service reported. "Everyone knows what the path ahead is, the path ahead is to have agreement on the verification protocol. The North Koreans know that," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Have you ever noticed how the NORKs do this s**t everytime there is a little crisis like the current financial one.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/25/2008 10:31 Comments ||
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#2
The North Koreans use the Iranian playbook: continuing the program while doing anything to stall their adversaries. Clinton and Albright fell for it, and now it appears that they will get away with it on Dubya and Condi's watch too. Both the Norks and the Iranians probably already have enough material for lots of dirty bombs. Are we ready to decontaminate major cities?
#3
The Norks have enough plutonium for 6-10 bombs. There is enough uranium missing from declared Iranian stocks for 4-5 bombs. The Iranians also mine their own uranium, so the world really doesn't know how much has been diverted to the Iranian's bomb program. But, it boggles the mind to think the mullahs haven't been running undeclared centrifuges for the past 10 years.
Posted by: ed ||
09/25/2008 12:47 Comments ||
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#4
ION TOPIX > NORTH KOREA ACCUSES THE USA OF PLANNING SURPRISE ATTACK + NORTH KOREA MAY RESUME PLUTONIUM PRODUCTION NEXT WEEK + DEFECTOR [Hwang Jang-op]: NORTH KOREA HAS PILED UP ENRICHED URANIUM. Also allegedly completed requirements for conducting an undergound nuke test(s) back in 1996???
Methinks the NOKORS have read MOUD's comments on how the USA IS ISOLATING/SURROUNDING IRAN, plus MSM-Net Reports on US-SK "OPLAN/CONPLAN 5029" options in case of NOKOR collapse.
PARIS (AFP) - Extremist forces threaten the very existence of Pakistan, the incoming US commander in the region warned Thursday, as tension mounted between NATO and Pakistani forces on the Afghan frontier.
General David Petraeus, who will take charge of US forces in southwest Asia and the Middle East next month, told reporters that Pakistani and US-led troops would have to work together to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda."Pakistan faces a threat that certainly seems to be an existential threat," he said, at a press conference at the US embassy in Paris.
Petraeus described the common enemy as a "syndicate" uniting "some true Al-Qaeda, some Taliban and in between different forms of extremist movements, which are very much contributing to the problem in Afghanistan."
The general was speaking shortly after it was confirmed that Pakistani forces had fired warning shots at US military helicopters operating under NATO command near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.
Islamabad claims to be fighting the armed groups in its unruly borderlands, despite allegations of collusion between its security forces and Islamic militants launching cross border attacks on Afghan and NATO troops. But Pakistan has also reacted angrily to US airstrikes -- and a reported commando raid -- on its side of the border and the army has vowed to defend its sovereignty, even if that means clashes with US forces.
Petraeus said he had yet to be briefed on the incident in which the helicopters were fired upon, and refused to be drawn on the circumstances in which he would order a cross-border operation. Instead, he insisted that he would work in cooperation with the Pakistani military, which he said faced the same threat."I think the only real answer that I can give you at a forum like this is just to say that there has to be coordination, cooperation and very constructive dialogue as that effort goes forward. As was shown tragically and horrifically in the Marriott Hotel bombing, these same extremist elements again represent a true existential threat to Pakistan itself," he said, referring to an attack on Saturday in Islamabad.
#3
POST-GEORGIA > the US-Allies is now in new war agz Radical Islam for the de facto control and domination of mainland Asia and any peripheral areas.
JAN 2009 + POST-DUBYA POTUS PERIOD > as long as the US, etc. keeps itself to IRAQ-AFGHANISTAN, or even redux, RADICLA ISLAMISM INTENDS TO RAMPAGE, DESTABILIZE, AND EMPOWER OR ESTABLISH PRO-ISLAMIST ARMED ENCLAVES, POLITICAL ORGS AND LOCAL NETWORKS AMAP THROUGHOUT ASIA. It desires not only to rebuild and recoup its Manpower, $$$ and Materiel losses from fighting the US-Allies, but also to "hedge" and increase its odds of successfully going NUCLEAR EVEN IFF IRAN, ETC GETS ATTACKED AND INVADED BY THE US = US-ALLIES.
As RUSH LIMBAUGH once labeled, LE QUESTIONNE > WILL THE VARIOUS NATION-STATES OF ASIA, ESPEC BIGGIES RUSSIA + CHINA + INDIA + JAPAN, TOLERATE OR ACCEPT LOCAL-REGIONAL US INTERVENTION, DOMINATION AND CONTROL TO PROTECT AGZ RADICAL ISLAM???
Lest we fergit, MAD/RADICAL MULLAHS > ENVIRO-RESOURCE CRISES, GREAT POWERS MILPOL CONFRONTATIONISM, + EVEN MUTUAL DESTRUCTION, ETC. ANARCHIES AND CHAOSES, IS TO ISLAM'S = ISLAMISM'S ADVANTAGE.
More popularly known as IFF WE DON'T GET OUR WAY OR WE DON'T RULE, NOBODY ELSE WILL!
(AKI) - A suicide bomb attack killed at least one person and injured over a dozen others in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, reports said. An 11-year-old girl died in the blast while 19 others, including 13 security personnel were injured in the attack that took place at a checkpoint on the road to the airport.
The deadly blast occurred when Pakistani soldiers stopped a vehicle at the checkpoint and the driver detonated an explosives belt.
The girl killed in the explosion was reportedly travelling aboard a school bus with other female students, four of whom were injured, Al-Jazeera said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2008 00:00 ||
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At least seven Pakistani troops and 25 militants have been killed in fierce fighting in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials say. "There was a fierce clash between security forces and miscreants in Bajaur in which 25 miscreants were killed and seven soldiers embraced martyrdom," chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP Wednesday. The two sides exchanged heavy rocket and mortar fire during the fighting, sources said.
Nearly 800 civilians and militants have been killed to date and more than 300,000 people are displaced as a result of operations against the militants, which began August 6.
Thousands of people have illegally crossed into Pakistan since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. US and Afghan officials allege that militants use Pakistan's mountainous regions to launch cross-border attacks on US-led troops based in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2008 00:00 ||
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(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The alleged mastermind of last Saturday's deadly truck bombing of the Marriott hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, has emerged.
The suspect, Qari Zafar, has become part of Al-Qaeda's hardline Takfiri inner circle. He enjoys the protection of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and is believed to be hiding out in the lawless South Waziristan tribal area of North West Frontier Province.
Zafar is not only the suspected mastermind of the Marriot bomb blast, but has created a network which will shortly target strategic installations belonging to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, military headquarters in Karachi and police stations across the country, according to security officials. "Zafar is behind the planning, arrangement of transportation and procurement of explosives for the attack against the Marriott Hotel on 20 September," a top security source told Adnkronos International on Thursday on condition of anonymity. "Some of his men have been arrested in Punjab which further confirms his involvement in the whole scheme," the official added.
The connection to Zafar was established from phone numbers found on the mobiles of some of those arrested in Punjab.
According to security agencies, the chances of arresting Zafar are slim as he rarely moves from his alleged hideout in South Waziristan to visit the various cities of North West Frontier Province.
To most Pakistanis he is an obscure figure, and is considered by security agencies to be a ghostlike figure whose trail went cold after he managed to escape from custody last year. But he is known to international intelligence services which credit him with fox-like cunning and great bravery when organising and carrying out attacks against identified targets.
Originally from Karachi, Zafar was previously named as the leader of the banned militant Laskhar-i-Jhangvi group.
Originally from Karachi, Zafar was previously named as the leader of the banned militant Laskhar-i-Jhangvi group. In 2007, he escaped from the custody of security services in the Punjabi capital, Lahore. The United States government has put a 5 million dollar bounty on Zafar, according to the Rewards for Justice website.
Zafar is wanted for questioning in connection with the 2 March, 2006 bombing of the US Consulate in Karachi. The attack killed three Pakistani citizens and US diplomat David Foy. Zafar is suspected of being a key figure involved with this attack.
This article starring:
BAITULLAH MEHSUD
TTP
QARI ZAFAR
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Another reason that Wazoo needs to be systematically kinetically sterilized until the people quit harboring the perps or the perps are all gone. Afghanistan, for the US, has been going on for 7 years now. They respect power, and little else.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/25/2008 1:00 Comments ||
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#2
Another reason that Wazoo needs to be systematically kinetically sterilized until the people quit harboring the perps or the perps are all gone.
Alaska-Paul, Old Patriot haz the solution and it begins with some sweet ole aircraft referred to as a *BUFFS*. The rest is fun to contemplate...
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
09/25/2008 1:22 Comments ||
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#3
I am beginning to suspect most everyone in Pakistan is blind because there seem to be an awful lot of one-eyed men who want to be king.
#5
W is waiting for Israel to declare D-Day on taking out the Iranians and then on the same day our buffers hit the Taliban in wazooland.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/25/2008 10:33 Comments ||
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#6
AQ going after ISI? There's room for skepticism here. But consider all the chaos created by AQ in Iraq where they had to contend with US troops. Then think what they could do in Pakiland where there are no US troops, only Pak soldiers whose commitment is doubtful. AQ might be seeing Pakiland as a soft target compared to Afghanistan where they keep dying at the hands of those pesky Americans. Or maybe they think they can have both. They must be thinking about how to choke our supply lines. But wait. There's more. If they destabilize Pakiland there's a chance they could get their hands on the nukes. Then you start to see how an arclight over wazoo makes sense. Let the Paks bitch and moan about their sovereignty all they want. It's for their own good.
#7
If they destabilize Pakiland there's a chance they could get their hands on the nukes.
If it ever looks like the Talibunnies are about to lay their paws on the nukes, we'll cauterize the whole damn place. Need to do it now. Damn primitives.
#8
Ebang, I have to agree with you. While it is a dirty bird that shits in its own nest, these are decidedly dirty birds. Pakistan is a soft target. The government and the military have shown neither the will nor the ability to defend themselves effectively against these swine.
Your points about our supply lines and the nukes are also spot-on. These are rich and very achievable targets. However accomplishing the task is going to require patience and unanimity within the Al Q/Taliban side. They will have to muster a substantial force, or turn a subtantial component of the Pak military. I'm not sure they are going to be able to do it piecemeal with terrorist-style attacks. But I am confident that they are going to try.
Few things hone the mind like survival. Should the Al Q/Taliban really make a push to consume Pakistan, then I think the gloves will come off internally and there will be widespread killing. I think the threatened powers might even ask us to perform multiple arc-light raids.
All speculation, but count on the fact that it is going to get ugly and we likely will have an absolute weenie in the white house when it does who won't be able to capitalize on the opportunity/deal with the threat.
Gunmen ambushed and killed 12 policemen and eight US-backed Sunni militiamen in Diyala Province north of Baghdad on Wednesday as rebel violence continued despite a security force crackdown. The gunmen struck at around 3:30 p.m. in the village of Al-Dulaimat in Diyala of which Baqouba is the capital, a security official said.
He said the policemen and the militiamen had gathered in the village when they were ambushed by the gunmen. Doctor Ahmad Fouad of Baqouba hospital confirmed it had received 20 dead. "The bodies are riddled with bullets," he told AFP.
The security official said the area surrounding the village was a longstanding Al-Qaeda stronghold. He said the slain policemen included three officers - a colonel, a lieutenant colonel and a captain.
The ambush took place as the police detachment deployed in the village to take part in a raid against Al-Qaeda militants alongside militiamen of the Sahwa, or "Awakening, Council." "They were in three vehicles when several armed men ambushed and killed all of them," the official said.
Diyala is the most dangerous of Iraq's 18 provinces despite a US-backed offensive which the security forces launched against Al-Qaeda and other insurgents in May. The province has seen a spate of suicide bombings, many of them carried out by women.
On September 15, a woman suicide bomber blew herself up in a crowd of people during a feast in the town of Balad Druz in Diyala, killing 22 people and wounding dozens more.
A few days before he left Iraq earlier this month, the outgoing commander of US forces, General David Petraeus, told AFP that Al-Qaeda was still capable of launching lethal attacks in the country. He said the group had been significantly damaged but was still not defeated.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2008 00:00 ||
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An El Al plane flying from Paris to Tel Aviv landed safely on Wednesday after security officials received a warning that al-Qaida may have planted a bomb on board, but this proved to be false, Israeli police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah, right. The day AQ can succeed in planting even a kiss on an El Al flight is the day we really have to get worried.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/25/2008 10:34 Comments ||
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#2
But AQ can still play hell just phoning this crap in; do you want to be the guy in the hot seat that decides its another false alarm when /if the plane 'spoleds?
i can only wonder why they haven't invoked this play in the US commercial air system. knowing how porous the TSA (spit) screening system is and the public releases about 'red team' successes for sneaking pretend bombs through, nobody in their right mind would take a chance ignoring that call. the system would be on its knees in hours with a dedicated effort.
Israel Defense Forces troops foiled a terror attack on Wednesday, stopping a convoy of Palestinian vehicles as it attempted to run them over after having burst through a West Bank roadblock.
Soldiers positioned near the Palestinian village of Singil, north of Ramallah, fired warning shots into the air after noticing the three vehicles, including a tractor, speeding toward them. The troops, who were IDF reservists, succeeded in detaining four Palestinians who have been handed over to police for interrogation. Troops also confiscated the tractor.
No IDF soldiers were wounded in the incident, nor was any property damage caused.
Meanwhile Wednesday, a 16-year-old Palestinian was arrested at the Hawara West Bank checkpoint on suspicion that he had planned to stab an IDF soldier with a 10 cm. knife. When the Palestinian teen took out the knife, the soldier wrestled the weapon away from him and successfully subdued him. The young Palestinian was detained for questioning.
This incident was the second violent attack at the Hawara checkpoint this week. Earlier this week, a Palestinian woman threw acid in the face of an IDF soldier, who subsequently lost his vision in one eye.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"Speeding Tractor?"
Oh that's right, nothing runs like a John Al-Deere....
Several people were injured by a bomb in the Burmese city of Rangoon this morning, on the first anniversary of the military government's brutal crackdown against democracy demonstrators. The explosion adds to the tension in the country's biggest city, where convoys of armed police are patrolling in anticipation of the anniversary of the 'Saffron Revolution, when hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks and ordinary Burmese marched against the junta.
Police told Burmese reporters at the scene that seven people suffered "minor injuries" from the bomb, which went off at 10.35 this morning next to Rangoon's Mahandoola Park. The victims appear to have been queuing at a bus stop, a few hundred yards from the place where soldiers opened fire on unarmed protesters on September 27, 2007. One foreign witness, who was on the scene soon after the explosion, reported seeing at least three injured people, including two who lay motionless on the ground. The loud explosion rattled windows as far as two hundred yards away but caused little obvious physical damage. Within minutes the area around the explosion had been sealed off by police armed with rifles and guns for firing rubber bullets.
Police were to be seen probing the bushes and grass in the park, apparently in a search for further bombs, and photographing the site of the explosion. Plain clothes intelligence agents moved people along and took the photographs of foreigners who lingered close to the scene. "There was no bomb, no problem," a plain clothes security agent told The Times. "It is just a rehearsal -- no problem."
Opposition activists say that there will be no street demonstrations this week, because of the intense security presence in Burma's main cities. A convoy of ten trucks of riot police has been driving around the centre of Rangoon, with guns, truncheons, shields and bales of barbed wire on open display. Buddhist monks at monasteries which were involved in last year's disturbances report that plain clothes spies are watching their comings and goings, and may even have infiltrated their ranks.
#1
I found this article in the New Yorker from August 25 2008 excellent background on the Burma Uprising. Thought you all might find it equally helpful-- of special note is the role the US has played in fostering the development of political discussion groups critical of the regime. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/08/25/080825fa_fact_packer
The jihad insurgency in Thailand's southern provinces continues to take a toll of local residents and community life in Yala, with a rubber tapper the latest casualty on Thursday and four others wounded in Narathiwat Wednesday night.
Yala villager Asaman Sara, 22, was seriously wounded in the morning in Bannang Sata district on the Yala-Betong Road on his way to tap rubber. The incident occurred on the Yala-Betong road, and was believed to be the work of an terrorist insurgent group.
Meanwhile, local officials and a bomb disposal squad inspected the site of a Wednesday night bombing at a school in Narathiwat's Ruso district. One male student and three soldiers from the teacher protection unit were wounded and are now in hospital. The initial investigation said the terrorists insurgents placed a remote-controlled bomb in an iron box and detonated it with a mobile phone. The school was closed temporarily due to uncertain security.
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.
(AKI) - The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a bomb blast that killed two people in the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday.
Scores of Somali civilians have fled their homes as fighting intensifies between African Union troops and insurgents in the capital. Officials say an estimated 16,000 people have left their homes in Mogadishu for safer places. 
North Korea plans to restart nuclear fuel processing next week and has banned international inspectors from its Yongbyon reactor, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced Wednesday. 
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The alleged mastermind of last Saturday's deadly truck bombing of the Marriott hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, has emerged.
Several people were injured by a bomb in the Burmese city of Rangoon this morning, on the first anniversary of the military government's brutal crackdown against democracy demonstrators. The explosion adds to the tension in the country's biggest city, where convoys of armed police are patrolling in anticipation of the anniversary of the 'Saffron Revolution, when hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks and ordinary Burmese marched against the junta. 
