HAJI MOHAMMED Karim, a towering Pashtun in a black turban who carried his crippled son in his arms, had come in search of a magical cure to the graveside of Kandahar's al-Qaeda martyrs.
The Arab cemetery where 70 jihadis and their families were buried after they were killed in an air strike in 2001 has become a shrine for desperate Afghans. The graveside was crowded with childless women seeking sons and the fathers of mentally disabled boys. "They were foreigners but they left their homes and families to fight for Islam," said Karim. "They are an example for us like our Taliban fighters today."
The Arab cemetery, full of the green flags of martyrdom, is in the heart of Loya Wyala, a north Kandahar slum and Taliban stronghold. Its jumble of mud-brick homes is notorious for its thieves, gunmen for hire, and the longing of its jobless young men to fight foreign soldiers.
In recent weeks Nato troops have swept through looking for crude bomb factories and arms caches prepared for the annual spring fighting season, which started last month as the snows melted in Afghanistan's mountain passes. For two summers now, Taliban fighters have been slaughtered in unequal battles against heavily armed Nato forces in the pomegranate orchards and opium poppy fields of southern Afghanistan. But this year they seem to have learned from their mistakes, and instead of fighting a tribal war of ambush and attack they are looking to their old al-Qaeda allies for inspiration.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a commander close to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, promised new tactics in this spring's Hibrat ("teaching a lesson") offensive. He said: "We are making attacks against Nato forces by IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and the results are very good. The enemy are suffering. There will be suicide bombs as well."
The new strategy has already had a deadly effect. Four servicemen have been killed in recent weeks in and around Kandahar, including two US marines from the 3500-strong force sent last month to boost Nato troops.
Nato insists it is winning the slow battle against the insurgents, killing numerous mid-level enemy commanders over the winter. But there is no shortage of new recruits. Kandahar's slums are full of bored young men drawn to the glamour of jihad, while disgruntled tribes, poppy farmers whose crops have been eradicated and villagers who have lost relatives to Nato bombs all provide a pool of manpower. The Taliban say there is a one-year waiting list to become a suicide bomber.
There are also fears that a more ruthless generation of Afghans from the religious schools across the Pakistan border is filling leadership gaps as the Taliban old guard is killed off. In 2006 suicide bombing was so new and controversial some Taliban traditionalists took out newspaper adverts distancing themselves from it and blaming foreign jihadis. Now there is little debate.
In the past fortnight, Kandahar has been hit by two suicide bombers, just days after one in Pakistan, the usual pattern as a new class of "graduates" leaves a madrassa over the border.
Analysts say Taliban attacks are up by about a third this year on last year, with many of them aimed at soft targets, like Afghan police and officials. Inside Kandahar, fewer Afghans now dare speak out against the Taliban after a murder campaign last year against clerics who condemned suicide bombing.
Mullah Brother, the new military commander-in-chief, has promised to target Afghan government officials in a bid to paralyse the already weak administration in southern Afghanistan.
Haji Mohammed Iesah Khan, the anti-Taliban leader of the Achakzai tribe, said Kandahar's poor and uneducated turn to the Taliban because they have lost hope. He said only about one in 10 Pashtuns in the south support the Taliban - about the same as support Nato and the Kabul government, with the majority unhappy with both sides. The Taliban's ruthless new tactics may backfire, he said. "If they kill more civilians and more Afghans, they will lose the support of the people for sure. The poor go to the Taliban because they have lost hope, not because they believe in the Taliban."
This article starring:
Mullah Brother
Taliban
Zabiullah Mujahid
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Only Shiite islam allows burial shrines. I often wonder how many Muslims actually read Hadith or Koran commentary. When Christians started doing it in big numbers, Schism, Sectarianism, Secularism and Atheism followed.
#3
How many Muslims in that part of the world even know their letters, McZpoid, let alone reading?
Separately, why are the Afghan Taliban from Pakistan (and interesting tangle, that) copying the strategy that has resulted in Al Qaeda's eradication in Iraq? Getting approving headlines on CNN and in the New York Times is all very glamorous, but the proof of the strategy is in the killing, and it's been mostly Al Qaeda in Iraq at the receiving end.
#4
It's not a cargo cult - it's garbage worshipers...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/11/2008 9:22 Comments ||
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#5
Boy, was that article unbiased. I'm surprised they didn't call them the "valiant, all-conquering Taliban", fighting "the evil, atheist, foreign invaders of NATO who have come to their country to eat pork and leer at their women."
#8
I've fought against the idea for a decade or more, but I've finally decided we are going to have to have a revolution in this country to maintain our individual freedom. It may not have to be a violent revolution, but those of us who want to preserve our freedoms are certainly going to have to stand up for them. We need to begin in the universities and colleges, tge source of 2/3 of the brainwashing modern Americans receive. Then we're going to have to get our message out better than the Main-Sleaze Media does. Destroying jihadis is all well and good, but if we don't have a free country to come back to, it's not much of a help.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/11/2008 15:12 Comments ||
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#9
McZoid...Most so called "educated" muslims don't understand the koran let alone the illiterate multitudes that constitute Pakistan and Afghanistan who memorize out of context words in Arabic they hear repeated without the slightest idea of what they are saying.
Serbs voted Sunday in elections that will likely decide whether the nation takes another step toward mainstream Europe or reverts to a hard-line stance reminiscent of the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. The ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party clung to a slim lead heading into the parliamentary vote, closely trailed by President Boris Tadic's pro-Western coalition. Officials said early turnout was strong.
Potential kingmakers included nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's conservative bloc and Mr. Milosevic's Socialists. One -- or both -- were expected to help form a new government with an anti-Western and pro-Russia stance. "People here can't shake the feeling that Europe isn't fair and just toward Serbia," Braca Grubacic, a prominent political analyst, said Saturday. "Serbia is not like it used to be, but the problems and the political agenda are the same as they were during the Milosevic era."
Voters were also casting ballots in Kosovo, where Serb leaders organized parallel local elections in defiance of international authorities. The United Nations branded the local elections illegal, but did not stop people from voting, and NATO peacekeepers stepped up patrols as a precautionary measure. "We hope there will be no incidents," said Momir Kasalovic, an official in the ethnically divided northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica.
Mr. Kostunica and Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic capitalized on an acute sense of betrayal after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February and gained formal recognition from the U.S., Canada, Japan and key European powers. "I want Kosovo to remain in Serbia -- that's why I voted for Serbian patriots," said Zoran Jovanovic, a 66-year-old retiree. "The European Union and the West want to take Kosovo away from Serbia. That's why there is no place for us in that bloc. Russia is our true friend." The nationalists also have exploited disenchantment with 30% unemployment, rising prices and corruption. "For the people of Serbia, today is the day they will feel a change for the better ... when it will be worth living in Serbia," Mr. Nikolic said after voting Sunday. He said he expected to quickly make an alliance with Mr. Kostunica "which will finally lead to the formation of a good government."
Mr. Tadic, who opposes Kosovo's independence but wants to steer Serbia toward the EU, has received death threats. He has also been publicly denounced as a traitor for signing a pre-entry aid-and-trade pact with the EU -- a deal that Messrs. Kostunica and Nikolic contend amounts to blood money in exchange for giving up Kosovo. Mr. Nikolic, meanwhile, is basking in the belief that his day has come. Over the past five years, the Radicals have steadily gained power and influence in Serbia. In the three most recent elections, they won a majority in the 250-seat parliament but were unable to govern without the support of Mr. Kostunica's bloc. Both Messrs. Kostunica and Nikolic have said Serbia should shelve its proclaimed goal of joining the EU and concentrate instead on establishing close political and economic ties with Russia.
Some Serbs are understandably skittish about the possibility that their country could revert to nationalist or even ultranationalist rule and slide deeper into instability and isolation. "I voted for Europe and against the road that leads us back to the misery of the 1990s," Milica Ostojic, a 22-year-old university student, said Sunday after casting her ballot at a packed polling station in New Belgrade. However, Charles Ingrao, a Balkans expert at Purdue University, insists the world shouldn't fear a reprise of Milosevic-style bloodshed. "The days of Milosevic are gone," he said. "Serbia can no longer project power beyond its own borders like it did in the 1990s. I don't know what we're afraid of. Times have changed."
(Xinhua) -- Turkey's General Staff said in a statement issued on Saturday that the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) had dissolved to a great extent.
According to the statement, there were about 200 PKK rebels on the Mount Qandil in northern Iraq. Most of them laid down arms after the air strike of Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). "Those terrorists passed through the check points of the regional administration in north of Iraq and dispersed to settlements in the region," said the statement, adding that the TSK staged a major air strike on PKK camps in northern Iraq on May1- 2 and successfully destroyed most of them.
"All these developments indicate that the PKK is panicked and demoralized," it said, adding that "many so-called top members of the PKK had started to see a nightmare and tried to flee to other regions or neighboring countries."
At least 19 PKK rebels were killed during the clash with the security forces in the southeastern province of Hakkari earlier on Saturday, while four Turkish security officers died in the clash, said the statement, adding that two soldiers were also wounded.
"Turkish Armed Forces would continue to fight against the PKK in and out of Turkey with determination," added the statement.
The Turkish military has periodically bombed and shelled suspected PKK positions in Turkish-Iraqi border area during the past few months. In February it launched an eight-day ground incursion into Iraq.
The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2008 00:00 ||
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Disgruntled Maoist cadres burnt effigies of their party supremo Prachanda in southern Nepal's Rautahat district. The effigy was burnt over the issue of nominating representatives from Madhesi and Dalit communities to the Constituent Assembly (CA).
For the first time, cadres from Dalit and Madhesi communities burnt effigies of Prachanda and other leaders at Gaur and Shivapura areas on Saturday accusing them of sidelining them while nominating CA members under the Proportionate Representation (PR) system, The Himalayan Times and the Nepal Samacharpatra reported.
Hundreds of cadres staged a rally from their party district office and raised slogans like ''Down with Prachanda'', ''Long Live Madhesi Unity'', according to the dailies. Later, they burnt the effigies of party chief Prachanda, newly elected CA member from the district Prabhu Shah, and district in-charge of the party Haribhakta Kandel.
And the day after Prachanda seizes final power, these guys will be rounded up and shot for being 'deviationists'. Or Trotskyites. Or something.
Posted by: john frum ||
05/11/2008 08:23 ||
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#1
Jummy Carter should donate one of his effigys to defuse the situation.
The Iraqi government has agreed a truce with the movement of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to end weeks of fighting in eastern Baghdad between Shia militia and security forces, a Sadr spokesman said on Saturday.
If confirmed, the ceasefire could end violence that has killed several hundred people and trapped the 2 million residents of the Sadr City slum in a battle zone. Government officials were not immediately available to comment.
Sadr spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi told Reuters that an agreement had been reached between the Sadr movements bloc in parliament and the ruling Shia alliance, called the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA).
He said he expected the agreement to take effect either on Saturday night or Sunday. A deal has been made between the al-Sadr bloc and the United Iraqi Alliance to have a ceasefire. The main aim of the deal is to solve the crisis in Sadr City, Ubaidi said. The government has accepted this deal, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2008 00:00 ||
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Gaza officials said Saturday that they switched off all three turbines that had been generating electricity for hundreds of thousands of Gazans. Energy official Kaanan Obeid said Israel hadn't provided enough diesel to run the power plant.
Ninety percent of Gaza City was plunged in darkness Saturday night, Obeid said.
Israel has limited its rations of fuel and other supplies to Gaza in an attempt to pressure terrorists to stop firing rockets at the western Negev. An IDF spokesman said Saturday that Israel didn't deliver as much fuel as planned to Gaza this week because Palestinian terrorists attacked the crossing used to deliver it. He said he did not know when fuel supplies to the power plant would resume.
Until the Hamas gunnies agree not to shoot up the crossing?
The plant has shut down before, citing fuel shortages, but Israel delivered fuel the following day. It was not immediately clear if the privately owned power station had actually run out of fuel Saturday or whether it was shut down to pressure Israel to deliver fuel.
Government spokesman David Baker denied Israel was to blame for the blackout. "Israel continues to supply fuel and vital humanitarian goods to Gaza," Baker said. "There is no logical reason for this fuel plant to be shut down. This is another example of Hamas orchestrating an artificial crisis for its own political aims and once again Hamas is showing a complete disregard for the welfare of the Palestinian people."
Earlier Saturday, Egyptian authorities ordered a three-day opening of the Rafah border crossing on Saturday to allow Palestinians to cross into Egypt from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment, said a security official at the terminal. Palestinians in urgent need of surgery as well as cancer and heart patients will be given priority to cross into Egypt, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
On Friday, Hamas leader comfortably in hiding exile Khaled Mashaal urged Egypt to open Rafah crossing if Israel rejected its truce proposal, Hamas and other Palestinian factions endorsed the proposal in principle in late April. Hamas is trying to negotiate a new arrangement for the border crossings with Israel and Egypt, as part of a wider package that would also include a Gaza-Israel cease-fire and a prisoner swap.
Speaking in Damascus, Mashaal said that Egypt should open the terminal even if Israel rejects the truce. "If Israel rejects this Egyptian effort. I demand Egypt and Arab countries to immediately take the unilateral initiative to lift the siege and open the Rafah crossing. No Arab has an excuse not to do that," he said, vowing to take "creative" measures.
While he sits in a well-lit, air-conditioned villa in Damascus, doing the work of the The Masses.
This article starring:
Khaled Mashaal
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2008 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
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#1
He sounds like a real "Man of the People", and I'm sure you're absolutely right about him sitting in a luxury condo in Damascus spouting belligerent b.s. about their "Resistance".
Sounds good to me. I don't see any reason to change the situation. I'd shut off the water, too. The Gazans don't want any of that old nasty JOOOO-contaminated fuel or water anyway. They'll be a lot happier if they let their "Arab Brothers" in Egypt supply their needs. I'm sure, of course, that at the prospect of any Israeli supply cutoff the renowned Arab solidarity will insure they spring right into immediate action to insure Gazans don't go without...
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
05/11/2008 13:38 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Just like the Arabs have been doing for the last 60 years, right, Thaimble?
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/11/2008 15:52 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Guess all that fuel was being used to run the Hamas free taxi service
(Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement on Saturday welcomed Hamas' call for internal reconciliation, but still insisted on Hamas abandoning the rein of Gaza as a precondition for dialogue. "The reconciliation is a national and a strategic necessity for the Palestinian people," said Qadoura Fares, a leading member of Fatah.
On Friday, exiled Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal called for dialogue and reconciliation during a speech he delivered in a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. However, Fares said Mashaal's call "requires important acts" to kick off the dialogue, referring to a condition set by Abbas that Hamas must end its control of the Gaza Strip before any talks.
Meanwhile, Hamas said Mashaal's speech "puts the ball in Abbas and his Fatah's court," calling on the Palestinian president to "set himself free from the American veto and respond to the dialogue's call."
"Since Abu Mazen (Abbas) accepts the negotiations with the Israeli occupation, he should have accepted the dialogue with his people," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took over the coastal enclave by force last June.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2008 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- A Hamas commander said on Saturday the armed group's missiles became more accurate and would cause more pain to the Israelis. "Recently, the Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades have developed its performance and rockets," Hamas website quoted the unidentified commander as saying. "The missiles are more accurate and can cause more pain to the enemy," the commander said, adding Hamas uses "heavy mortars" when targeting settlements around the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
On Friday, Hamas fired a number of mortar shells, killing an Israeli woman at her house in a community to the east of Gaza Strip borders.
Meanwhile, the commander threatened Israel, especially residents of Sderot city, with more rockets. The city, one km to northeast Gaza Strip, is a frequent target of homemade Palestinian rockets. "The settlers there will not enjoy safety as long as our people don't have it," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2008 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
They now fly in the direction we aim them. They ALWAYS hit the ground, which is their target. We are still working on the range thingy.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/11/2008 1:42 Comments ||
Top||
#2
IMO, IDF should work toward less acurate, andmore broad, responses.
#3
OK, suppose these missiles are 100% accurate. That will invite some serious retaliation. The fact that 99% of the time they miss their targets seems to result in these hideous acts being interpreted as expressions of frustration instead of for what they are: acts of war.
The US has given Israel the green light for a large-scale Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar claimed Saturday.
The paper quoted unnamed diplomats who said Washington had authorized the move after Defense Minister Ehud Barak presented US officials with documents attesting to the increased arming of Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives in the Strip.
The paper further stated that Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had met several times recently to discuss the prospect of an operation and make a final decision on the issue. It claimed that Israel's hesitancy was due to fears that such an action would hurt negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2008 00:00 ||
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[2 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Why do WE need to give any green lights? Its their country, we really don't have much to do with this at all.
#2
Why do WE need to give any green lights? ... Besides, I though they were our "Zionist Masters"
If you don't understand simple things like this, bigjim-ky, how can you hope to understand that decreasing temperatures are a sure proof of global worming?
Lets start you on something really simple---meditate on the following for a fortnight.
"Americans even worse than Israelis---who are the worse."
#5
Line the Cat D11s up at the northeast corner of Gaza facing west; drive to the Med; move slightly south; repeat until problem solved. Really, these problems aren't all that difficult.
#6
I would just LOVE to see the US run an ARCLIGHT strike with six B-52s just three miles offshore, then tell Hamass they need to understand that peace with Israel will be the only thing that keeps us moving that strike four miles to the east. These people need to understand that they have caused many Americans - me among them - to think that the only positive side of Hamass is as worm food...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/11/2008 15:40 Comments ||
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#7
Actually, grom, I rather like the idea of global worming.
(Xinhua) -- Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej Saturday called on insurgents in the violence-stricken deep south to put down their arms and help contribute to the country's peace.
Samak, accompanied by top military brass, including Army chief General Anupong Paochinda and police chief, Pol General Patcharawat Wongsuwan, visited Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, the country's three southernmost provinces, on Saturday.
The three provinces, with a majority Malay-speaking Muslim population, have seen unabated insurgent violence since early 2004, during which over 3,000 people were killed. Authorities have blamed southern Muslim separatists for the violence.
Samak made the appeal in Yala, saying "I want to tell all those people who have been mislead into taking up arms and creating disturbances to stop because all sides want peace. And if the misled people want to surrender they can do so by reporting to the authority," according to the website of The Nation news group.
Samak's visit to the deep south was the first since he took office in early February. His trip was aimed "to seek insight on the region's problems, meet Muslim leaders and to give moral support to government officials," according to state media Thai News Agency.
The premier, who is known for his interest in cooking and once hosted a TV cooking show, said he would himself cook the dinner for soldiers and local officials to boost their morale.
Also on Saturday, Samak and the military leaders visited the Sirindhorn Military Camp in Yala province to meet with local Muslim leaders and government officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/11/2008 00:00 ||
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BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka - Residents in Sri Lanka's war-ravaged east voted for the first time in two decades on Saturday in an election the government hopes will endorse its war to defeat Tamil Tiger rebels.
Security was tightened for the polls in the eastern districts of Trincomalee, Ampara and Batticaloa, where the ruling alliance of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has teamed up with former rebels, whom rights groups accuse of abuses such as child soldier recruitment but are seen as likely winners.
"We want peace soon, I will vote for the people who can bring us peace and send us home soon," said S Chandrasekaran, a 42-year-old farmer who had to flee his home in 2006 when the military began an offensive to drive the Tigers out of the out.
Nearly 1 million people are eligible to vote for 1,342 candidates to fill 35 seats. The vote underpins the government's twin strategy to defeat the rebels using both the ballot box and the current military offensive.
"Weak turnout was reported. A total of about 50 percent had cast their vote by 3:00 p.m. (0930 GMT)," said Kingsly Rodrigo, chairman of People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), an election monitoring group. "Various complaints of intimidation, (ballot box) stuffing and chasing polling agents have been reported. We have received about 40 cases of election-related violence."
President Rajapaksa says the poll is crucial to restore democracy to the area, until recently held by the Tigers, and allow development after 25 years of war. The elections are also part of the government's blueprint for devolution in minority Tamil areas, which it hopes will go hand-in-hand with its push to win the war in which tens of thousands of people have died. Analysts see the election as a referendum on the government's military strategy against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/11/2008 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.
HAJI MOHAMMED Karim, a towering Pashtun in a black turban who carried his crippled son in his arms, had come in search of a magical cure to the graveside of Kandahar's al-Qaeda martyrs.
Serbs voted Sunday in elections that will likely decide whether the nation takes another step toward mainstream Europe or reverts to a hard-line stance reminiscent of the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. The ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party clung to a slim lead heading into the parliamentary vote, closely trailed by President Boris Tadic's pro-Western coalition. Officials said early turnout was strong.
(Xinhua) -- Turkey's General Staff said in a statement issued on Saturday that the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) had dissolved to a great extent. 
Gaza officials said Saturday that they switched off all three turbines that had been generating electricity for hundreds of thousands of Gazans. Energy official Kaanan Obeid said Israel hadn't provided enough diesel to run the power plant. 
The US has given Israel the green light for a large-scale Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip, Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar claimed Saturday. 
BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka - Residents in Sri Lanka's war-ravaged east voted for the first time in two decades on Saturday in an election the government hopes will endorse its war to defeat Tamil Tiger rebels. 
