[Tolo News] A Taliban leader called Janan has been killed in a joint Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troops operation in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... Saturday, Isaf said.
"Afghan and coalition forces conducted a security operation resulting in the death of a Taliban leader, Janan, in Nad 'Ali district, Helmand province, yesterday," Isaf said in a statement Sunday.
Janan was responsible for directing and executing multiple attacks and kidnappings targeting security forces in Helmand province. He used improvised bombs, rockets and small arms fire during his attacks, Isaf added.
Five other faceless myrmidons were killed Sunday in a separate joint operation in search of a Taliban leader in Panjwa'i district of southern Kandahar province, Isaf said.
The Taliban leader is believed to be in charge of a large cell of jihad boy fighters known for conducting attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, it added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Senate, the partisans of Honorius went for their knives and the partisans of Stilicho went for the doors... the Afghan Ministry of Interior in a statement Sunday said that in Afghan joint operations in the past day at least three Taliban faceless myrmidons had been killed and 20 others captured.
The operations were conducted in Bamyan, Badakhshan, Uruzgan, Maidan Wardak, Pashtun-infested Logar, Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... and Helmand provinces, it said.
Also, during these operations, Afghan National Police discovered and confiscated some amount of light and heavy rounds ammunitions and IEDs, the MOI statement said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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At least eight people were killed when a massive car bomb in the center of Mogadishu. Reports say a loud explosion was heard near the National Theater.
Police official Mohamed Duale said, "We've counted at least eight dead so far. It was a car bomb attack near the National Theater."
One witness, Hassan Salad, said the dead included passengers in a minibus that was hit by the blast. He said, "This is a disaster, there is smoke and dead bodies thrown all around."
No group has yet taken responsibility for the attack.
Prime NYT hand-wringing by hardcore NYT writer Eric Schmitt.
NEMA, Mauritania — With France planning to start withdrawing its troops from Mali next month, Western and African officials are increasingly concerned that the African soldiers who will be relied on to continue the campaign against militants linked to Al Qaeda there do not have the training or equipment for the job.
The Malian army can't handle it? Send in the mighty Uruguayans!
You might want to keep the French in town and keep them sweet...
The outcome of the fighting in Mali carries major implications not only for France, but also for the Obama administration, which is worried that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and other militant groups could retain a smaller but enduring haven in remote mountain redoubts in the Malian desert.
To help the French, the United States began flying unarmed surveillance drones over the region last month from a new base in Niger. And the administration has spent more than $550 million over the past four years to help train and equip West African armies to fight militants so that the Pentagon would not have to. But critics contend that the United States seems to have little to show for that effort.
Pretty much like everything else Champ has put his hands on. You'd think he was managing a green energy company or something in Mali...
Turning Mali’s own fractured army into a cohesive and effective force would entail “a huge amount of work,” according to Brig. Gen. Francois Lecointre of France, who is leading the effort to retrain Mali’s Army. As if to underscore the point, a group of Malian troops briefly abandoned their posts recently and fired shots in the air to demand a deployment bonus.
Did it work? Or did you find the malefactors and imprison them?
Here in the southeastern corner of Mauritania, about 100 miles from the border with Mali, an exercise conducted this month by the United States military to train African armies to foil ambushes, raid militant hide-outs and win over local populations offered the administration more reasons for worry, as well as some encouraging signs.
The exercise offered a rare glimpse into the strengths and weaknesses of several of the African armies that are poised to help take over the mission in Mali. In a few weeks, the United Nations Security Council is expected to decide whether to authorize a peacekeeping force for Mali and how to compose it.
What, no Uruguayans?
“It’s possible these troops would go to Mali,” said Lt. Col. M. Dieye of Senegal, commander of a platoon of special forces soldiers who took part. His nation, like Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, joined the exercise and have also sent troops to Mali. “Now we’ve worked together with other African troops, like we would in Mali,” he said.
The French-led operation in Mali has killed scores of militants and destroyed many weapons caches, and France has said it will not withdraw until the threat from the militants is vastly diminished. Even so, some Western officials say the African troops in Mali will be up against guerrilla fighters with far more experience in desert warfare than they have.
“No amount of exercise or training in the next couple weeks or months can, in itself, prepare African forces for their new role in Mali,” said Benjamin P. Nickels, a counterterrorism specialist at the National Defense University’s Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington. “An ongoing commitment will be required.”
So pay the French to run it. They know the area, know the people and have been willing to make a stand there.
France has already delayed its withdrawal by at least a month, amid fierce fighting against a major militant stronghold. The French had some 1,200 soldiers in that battle; along with 800 troops from Chad, they have been focusing their efforts on a 15-mile zone in the Adrar des Ifoghas, the rocky, barren mountains near MaliÂ’s border with Algeria.
The French are likely to maintain a small counterterrorism force in Mali after withdrawing most of their 4,000 troops from the country, diplomats say. The bulk of the peacekeeping duties will shift to African troops, with the growing likelihood that they will operate under a United Nations mandate.
But in a sign that Western officials are worried about whether the Africans will be up to the task, some diplomats are suggesting that the United Nations approve a heavily armed rapid-response force of up to 10,000 troops to ward off any resurgent Islamist threat in Mali. Chad, which has 2,200 soldiers in Mali and decades of experience in desert warfare, would probably supply the core of any peacekeeping mission.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, is expected to submit his peacekeeping recommendations to the Security Council by the end of March, and diplomats anticipate a vote as early as mid-April.
Mali’s own army, which toppled the country’s civilian government early last year, is “very much underequipped,” said General Lecointre, who is leading the European Union mission to retrain the Malian troops beginning April 2. “It is the army of a very poor country.”
And much more interested in toppling governments than in finding and fighting terrorists out in the boonies...
When the militants took advantage of the chaos caused by the coup to seize the northern half of the country, some Malian soldiers defected to the rebels and others fled rather than confront them. Malian soldiers who joined with French troops in January to reclaim three main northern cities from the militants have been accused in recent weeks of committing atrocities, including summary executions of suspected insurgents.
The heart [urp] bleeds...
Against this backdrop, the American-led training exercise that concluded here on March 9 took on greater significance, even though it was not specifically designed to address the conflict in Mali. Annual exercises that the Pentagon calls Flintlock have been staged in northwest Africa since 2006; last yearÂ’s installment was scheduled to be held in Mali, but it was but was canceled because of the coup.
This year, more than 600 African troops and 400 Western trainers and support personnel, including about 250 Americans, trained at this dusty crossroads town, as well as in two other major towns in southern Mauritania, Kiffa and Ayoun. For three weeks in temperatures soaring well above 100 degrees, African soldiers in groups of a dozen to two dozen teamed up with advisers from the United States or NATO allies like Spain, Italy, France or the Netherlands to practice marksmanship, patrol harsh desert terrain and resupply those patrols with airdrops.
“You have to able to shoot, you have to able to move, you have to be able to communicate, but most importantly, you have to be able to think,” said Col. George Bristol of the Marine Corps, the senior American Special Operations officer on the ground during the exercise.
If the daily training honed the AfricansÂ’ tactical skills, it also revealed weaknesses that insurgents could exploit, Western advisers said. Most African armies are small, with little money to buy modern gear, to train regularly or to set up systems to provide spare parts when equipment breaks down.
The African troops here learned to improvise with materials at hand. During one airdrop, for instance, Mauritanian soldiers used a large plastic tarpaulin as a makeshift parachute to successfully deliver supplies from a small propeller-driven airplane.
“We don’t need them to be as good as us, just better than the bad guys,” said one American officer who, under the ground rules for the exercise, would not be identified.
The training scenarios emphasized teamwork. In clear, searing weather one late afternoon, about two dozen troops in khaki camouflage uniforms, members of MauritaniaÂ’s presidential security platoon, gathered near some trees at one end of a small windswept valley. Suddenly, half the Mauritanians raced forward across open ground, firing their AK-47 rifles, while the others stayed back to provide covering fire. Then the roles reversed. Their objective was a mock militant encampment a few hundred yards down the valley, designated by several paper targets.
From a ridge above, Senegalese special forces soldiers also opened fire on the enemy camp, which in an actual raid would be intended to draw the militantsÂ’ attention away from the Mauritanians.
“Good sustained, controlled fire,” Colonel Bristol said after watching the maneuvers from a rocky hilltop.
For Mauritania, a vast, parched nation of about three million people at the western end of the Sahara that straddles the divide between largely Arab North Africa and black West Africa, playing host to this yearÂ’s exercise underscored its commitment to combat Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, diplomats and commanders said.
Since 2005, Qaeda fighters have kidnapped and murdered Western tourists, aid workers and Mauritanian soldiers in the country, and have attacked foreign diplomatic missions in Nouakchott, MauritaniaÂ’s oceanside capital.
The Mauritanian military, which has staged two coups since 2005, says it is vying with militants for the trust of the country’s civilian population. “Their main strength is their ability to lock in with local populations, spread out, and make it very hard to be pinpointed,” said Col. Mohamed Cheikh Ould Boyde, the senior Mauritanian officer during the exercise, who has trained in France, Tunisia and the United States.
“One of our biggest challenges,” the colonel added, “is separating the corn from the husk, so you can target the right people.”
Shades of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/18/2013 08:00 ||
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Obviously the trendy decolonization of Africa in the 1960s has been a failure.
Give the Congo back to Belgium, all of the Sahara back to the French, and let the English go back into Rhodesia and clean that fever swamp out.
The locals, were not prepared for self government when they were given the reins and it has been mayhem and utter chaos ever since. I can tell you Angola was a freaking nightmare after Portugal gave it up. And we all know what Somolia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Nigeria have become.
I think it was a project with both a high ROI and a positive NPV to let the French stay and have the US and the UK defray the cost. Eventually, anything that happens in the alternate universe that is Islamic fanaticism/terrorism comes down on our necks.
So could we just let the UK settle up things in the Sudan. After all they can unwrap Kitchener's tactics and subdue that mess.
As for us, as long as we lack the resolve in the National leadership to defend our interests, we can find ourselves on the receiving end of some horrific act germinated in Mali, Sudan, or Yemen.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/18/2013 10:34 Comments ||
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#2
From the seemingly endless queue of quotes I love and authors I do not:
#3
We didn't break Mali, we tried to help fix it but the danged Gorilla Glue didn't hold the pottery shards together. Let the French try to fix the place. It might take a while.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/18/2013 12:50 Comments ||
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#4
Never mind the rest, but don't let Belgium anywhere near the Congo. It never belonged to the country anyway, but was the personal income property of the kings, who put the most evil, avaricious men they could find in charge of maximizing income with no questions asked.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/18/2013 20:58 Comments ||
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I must simply agree and state as fact that the time of Belgium ground work has been relieved forever, with a note... your rucksack is in the hall. do not return.
[An Nahar] A French corporal was killed during fighting in northern Mali, bringing to five the number of French deaths since the January 11 intervention to oust armed Islamist groups, President Francois Hollande's ...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it... office said Sunday.
The statement did not elaborate on the circumstances of the soldier's death and paid tribute to the French forces involved in "the final and most difficult phase of their mission" in Mali.
With its special forces and aerial firepower, the French military took only days to reconquer the main cities in northern Mali, which al Qaeda's North African franchise and its allies had controlled for nine months.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Final figures on insurgent detainees and prisoners WIA/KIA are still being tabulated. Keep up the excellent work France.
[Bangla Daily Star] BNP-Jamaat men torched and vandalised around 60 vehicles in the capital yesterday, creating panic among city residents on the eve of the BNP-led alliance's 48-hour countrywide shutdown from this morning.
Pro-hartal pickets torched at least 18 vehicles and vandalised 40 more at different parts of the capital till 8:30pm yesterday.
The 18-party combine is going to enforce the shutdown demanding the release of 154 BNP leaders, who were jugged You have the right to remain silent... on March 11 from BNP's Nayapaltan office.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Count Guido stepped from behind the suit of armor, rapier in hand. Ciccolini snarled and reached for his own weapon... the business community has expressed worries over the frequent shutdowns and the recent countrywide violence.
The BNP-led alliance has enforced hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... for five days this month. And BNP's Dhaka district unit has threatened to enforce a daylong hartal on Thursday in Dhaka unless the opposition leaders are freed by Wednesday.
Sylhet Jamaat unit called hartal in the division for March 20, protesting the arrest of one of its leaders yesterday.
The shutdown, which has become a common political programme of the opposition to put pressure on the government to see their demands met, affects all across the board -- from export-oriented firms to day labourers.
Expressing concern over the recent shutdowns and countrywide violence, country's top business leaders said they would sit on Wednesday to decide their next course of action.
Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), said, "Our country faces financial loss and damage for every shutdown, and we are worried this time."
"We are repeatedly urging the political parties to sit and settle their differences. But nobody is paying heed to it. The situation is getting from bad to worse day by day," he told The Daily Star over the phone.
Akram said he wrote to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... and Jatiya Party ...aka Jatiya Front; a political party established by Bangladictator Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1986 to lend a veneer of respectability to his rule. Since nobody was amused he was forced to resign by popular demand in 1990. The party remains in existence with about a dozen seats in Bangla's parliament... Chairman HM Ershad, and sought their appointments to discuss how the business community can help the politicians hold dialogue to break the current political deadlock.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Quite the party! Did Bangla win the NBA Championship or something?
[Bangla Daily Star] Police arrested five Jamaat-Shibir men in Satkania upazila of Chittagong for their alleged involvement in vandalism and attacks on police during violence in the upazila since February 28.
The arrestees are Md Abu Taher, 54, Kefayet Ullah, 22, Md Jahed, 17, Md Shahadat Hossain, 19, and Yasir Arafat alias Hridoy, 17.
Police arrested the five men while conducting drives in different areas of the upazila from Saturday evening till early yesterday, said Md Ismail Hossain, officer-in-charge of Satkania Police Station.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Rapid Action Battalionincarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... advocate Ehsan Mahbub Jubair, ameer of the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... Sylhet city unit, from a hotel in the capital early yesterday.
Acting on a tip-off, Rab conducted a raid at the Hotel Garden Residence in Uttara and nabbed Jubair around 4:10am, said Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan, director of intelligence wing of Rab. He was taken to the Rab-1 headquarters in Uttara, where a press briefing was held in the afternoon.
Jubair was involved in conspiring against the government to foil the war crimes trial, and in attacking Shaheed Minars and police, torching vehicles and various other acts of vandalism, said Rab officials at the press briefing.
The 42-year-old Jamaat leader, also a former president of the Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... , was an on-the-run accused in at least 16 cases.
Meanwhile on hearing the news, over 200 leaders and activists of the Jamaat Sylhet city unit, led by Sayef Ahmed, nayeb-e-ameer of the city unit, brought out a procession from Bandar Bazar marching up to Jail Road around 10:00am.
"We will enforce a dawn-to-dusk hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... in the city [Sylhet] on Wednesday, if our ameer is not released within 24 hours," said Sayef.
Several other processions were brought out by the Jamaat at Shibganj, Mirabazar, Madina Market, Khadimnagar in Sylhet, demanding the immediate release of Jubair.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Acting on a tip-off, Rab conducted a raid
Was Mamoud the Wessel involved in this one?
Bangla's "democracy" consists of the BNP and AL alternating between being the government, trying to steal everything in sight, and being the opposition, calling general strikes every other day, whilst demanding the current govt quit. It's kind of like ours, except... ummm... I don't know what the difference is. I'm sure there is one though. I think.
Dhaka -- At least 22 vehicles were torched at different parts of the capital ahead of the BNP-led 18-party alliance's 48-hour countrywide hartal beginning at 6am on Monday.
Police detained 15 suspected pro-hartal activists from different of the city till 7:30 pm on Sunday.
Police, quoting witnesses, said a bus was torched by hartal supporters near the north gate of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque around 12:55pm. Another bus was torched at Malibagh around 1:35pm, while two near BNP's Nayapaltan central office and near Ananda Cinema Hall in Farmgate area in five minutes from 2pm.
One minibus was set afire near Eden College around 3:15pm while another near Kalyanpur bus stand at 3:30pm and a CNG-run auto-rickshaw was torched near Aarong showroom in the city's Moghbazar area around 7:40 pm. Locals caught a young man, Shanta, from the spot on charge of torching auto-rickshaw.
Auto-rickshaw driver Raju Ahmed said the vehicle was torched by three people including Shanta, who stopped the vehicle to go to Mohammadpur around 7:40pm. However, locals put out the fire and caught Shanta. He was handed over to police after a mass beating.
All that's left for Shanta is a cross-fire around oh-dark-thirty tomorrow; he's already had the ritual mob beating and the police custody...
A bus was set on fire at Banani level-crossing around 8:30 pm while another in front of Pallabi police station around 9:15 pm and another on Gulshan Link Road at about 9:20 pm.
Besides, a covered van was torched at Tejgaon bus stand at 8:10 pm while a pickup at Pirjangi Mazar around 9:20 pm, a leguna (human hauler) at Agargaon around 9:38 pm and a truck at Aero-plane intersection on Bijoy Sarani around 9:45 pm.
Sources at Dhaka Metropolitan Police said seven more vehicles were torched in Matsyasbhaban, Segunbagicha, Chankharpole, Nagarbhaban, Madhumita Cinema Hall Lalbagh and Mirpur areas till 7:30 pm.
Meanwhile, three physicians were injured as pro-hartal elements hurled a crude bomb at a private car carrying the trio at Hatirjheel in the city's Rampura area on Sunday night.
In another incident, miscreants exploded two crude bombs in front of the residence of Dhaka University Vice-chancellor Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique around 9:50 pm.
The 18-party alliance called the hartal after police raided the BNP central office on Monday evening and arrested over 150 leaders and activists of BNP, including its acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, vice chairmen Sadeque Hossain Khoka and Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, opposition Chief Whip Zainul Abedin Farroque, BNP joint secretaries general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed and Amanullah Aman. The alliance had given the government until Thursday to release the detained leaders and thus avert the shutdown.
Though three of the BNP leaders -- Mirza Fakhrul, Khoka and Altaf Hossain -- were released the following day, the remaining leaders and workers sent to jail.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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Does anyone in B-desh actually work?
I once had a shirt that had a label 'made in Bangladesh', but not anymore.
[Dawn] Security forces achieved yet another success in the ongoing targeted operation against cut-throats and lawbreakers in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... when they jugged Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! the former chief of outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... (LeJ) on Sunday, DawnNews reported. Say, whatever happened to Omar Saeed Sheikh?
Qari Abdul Hayee alias Asadullah, along with other serious crimes, was wanted for his alleged connection in the murder of an American journalist, Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and killed in 2002 in Karachi.
Earlier on Thursday, police had also arrested six Pak Taliban in connection with Abbas Town bombings and killed one of its activists, for his alleged involvement in murder of social worker Parveen Rehman, during an encounter .
Hayee was arrested during a targeted raid on University Road area and was taken to some holy man's guesthouse an undisclosed location for interrogation over recent Karachi and Quetta bombings by the paramilitary security forces.
Officials say the arrested was also involved in planning an attack on US soldiers near airport in 2002. He is also accused of sending parcel bombs to CID coppers.
Weapons were also recovered from Asadullah's possession, who has a long history of being involved in different acts of terrorism mainly against Shias.
This article starring:
Omar Saeed Sheikh
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Unknown militants set off an explosive device early on Sunday morning damaging four CD shops in Mattani area in the outskirts of Peshawar near Main Kohat road and the bordering area with Darra Adamkhel, DawnNews reported.
A pamphlet was found at the site of explosion which warned of more attacks against those engaged in the 'un-Islamic' businesses.
A local trader in the area talking to Dawn.com confirmed that a pamphlet was received in the market according to which, all 'immoral' businesses would face share the same fate as the targeted CD shop.
A local police official told Dawn.com that one kilogram of explosive material was used in the blast adding that no one was harmed in the attack.
Earlier this month, shop keepers in Peshawar discontinued the sale of mobile phone SD memory, USB flash memory and other media after the Pakistani Taliban had threatened to blow up mobile phone markets for selling 'shameless' video clips, ringtones and accessories.
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant organisations have also warned in the past of attacks against those selling viagra, obcene films and also against those running net-cafes and CD shops.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] One of the prime characters of the Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... gang war, Arshad Pappu, was killed early on Sunday along with his with his brother and an associate in Lyari area of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , DawnNews reported.
Three persons were killed in a gunfiring incident near Brohi chowk in Karachi's Lyari area.
The victims were later identified as Arshad Pappu, his brother Yasir Arafat and an associate Shera Pathan.
The bodies were shifted to Civil hospital.
All three men were wanted by the government whereas Arshad Pappu was considered as one of the central characters of the gang war that has plagued one of the oldest localities of the city rendering it a virtual war-zone at times. Pappu carried a head money of two million rupees and was wanted for murder, attempted murder and kidnapping cases.
A large number of people took out to the streets after the incident and blocked the police's access to the area for hours.
Moreover, four other persons were killed and six others injured in various incidents of violence across the city.
Two persons were rubbed out near Memon Masjid in Boulton market area of the city.
Another person was killed while resisting a robbery in Landhi's Zafar Town area in Karachi.
A trader was killed in a gun-firing incident near New Sabzimandi on Super Highway. A number of enraged locals took out a protest after the incident. The protestors pelted stones at cars and blocked the flow of traffic on the Super Highway.
A father and son suffered gunshot wounds while resisting a robbery in Nazimabad area.
Three persons were maimed in a gunfiring incident in Sariya Galli in Kharadar area of the city.
Another person suffered gunshot wounds in a firing incident in Moosa lane of Karachi's Lyari area.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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At least 12 people were killed on Sunday in attacks in southern and northern Iraq, dpa reported citing security officialsas saying.
Ten people were killed when two car bombs exploded in the mostly Shiite city of Basra, some 550 kilometres south of the capital Baghdad, said the officials. The first explosion occurred near a marketplace in the northern side of Basra. The second happened inside a garage in the centre of the city.
Elsewhere, two people died in an attack on their house by gunmen in Mosul, about 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, said police.
In a separate incident in Mosul, a local official in Mosul escaped death when a roadside bomb hit his convoy.
The violence comes days after 23 people were killed in an assault targeting the Justice Ministry in central Baghdad. A group affiliated with al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, saying it had left 60 security personnel and investigators dead.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Dar al-Fatwa holy mans Sheikh Mazen Hariri and Sheikh Ahmed Fakhran were beaten up on Sunday while passing through the Beirut area of Khandaq al-Ghamiq, state-run National News Agency reported.
They were transported to the Makassed Hospital in Tariq al-Jedideh for treatment, NNA said.
As the news broke out, angry protesters blocked roads in the Beirut areas of Tariq al-Jedideh, Qasqas and Corniche al-Mazraa, as well as Sidon's entrance in the South and al-Masnaa's road in the Bekaa.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani urged calm and restraint after the attack, stressing that the perpetrators "will not go unpunished."
"We urge calm and restraint to enable security forces to investigate the incident," Qabbani said in a televised address.
"We have full confidence in security agencies and the state, but we will not let things go unpunished," the mufti said.
"We will not allow these elements to achieve their goals," Qabbani stressed, declining to accuse any specific party.
Later on Sunday, the army managed to arrest three people involved in the attack in Khandaq al-Ghamiq, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel announced.
The army also placed in durance vile ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... two people accused of assaulting Sheikh Omar al-Imami in the Beirut suburb of Shiyyah. He was transported to a Chtaura hospital after receiving first aid at a Beirut hospital.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Irene was indignant at the thought of doing such a thing without benefit of clergy... Hizbullah and AMAL Movement condemned the attack on the holy mans, describing it as an attempt to incite strife and stressing that the perpetrators must be arrested and punished.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Cautious calm engulfed the northern city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... on Sunday as at least two people were maimed by sniper fire in Jabal Mohsen, one day after two men from the neighborhood were maimed in a knife attack at a nearby vegetable market.
Quoting Abdul Latif Saleh, a front man for the Arab Democratic Party which is the main political and military group in Jabal Mohsen, the National News Agency said Ali Abdullah, aka Al-Haskeh, was hit by a sniper bullet that penetrated his shoulder. He was rushed to al-Zahraa Dispensary for treatment.
Earlier, several areas in Jabal Mohsen and the rival Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood came under sniper gunfire, amid "cautious calm" in the two districts, NNA reported.
Tensions subsided as army units deployed along Syria Street, which separates the two districts, as well as at all the intersections that connect the two neighborhoods, NNA added later on Sunday.
"No gunfire is being heard at the moment," it said.
OTV earlier said "three people were maimed by sniper fire in Tripoli's Jabal Mohsen."
Radio Voice of Leb (100.5) reported a lower toll, saying two people were maimed. It also said a hand grenade went kaboom! on Syria Street.
Radio Voice of Leb (93.3) identified the two maimed as Ali Nasr Abdullah and policeman Fouad Faisal Ibrahim, saying they were rushed to the Our Lady of Zgharta Hospital.
On Saturday evening, gunshots were heard in the region following a personal feud that took place at a vegetable market.
"The residents of Jabal Mohsen blocked a northern road with burning tires after men from Bab al-Tabbaneh attacked two people from their neighborhood," the radio station said.
"Bursts of machinegun fire were heard in Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen following the incident," according to LBCI.
Radio Voice of Leb (93.3) said an Energa-type rocket was fired on Syria Street.
Arab Democratic Party official Rifaat Eid told LBCI: "What happened in Jabal Mohsen is a spontaneous reaction to the feud in the vegetable market."
"The security forces promised to follow up on the situation," he noted.
Eid labeled on Thursday the situation in Tripoli as "intolerable", warning against the lack of security and the "sectarian killing" taking place in the northern region.
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03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The army on Sunday incarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... a man who opened fire on the Sidon predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Haret Saida, as anti-Hizbullah Islamist holy man Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir denied that the detainee is one of his supporters.
Earlier on Sunday, MTV said "army intelligence agents arrested al-Asir's supporter Hilal Zeidan for opening fire on the Haret Saida neighborhood."
State-run National News Agency later said army intelligence agents arrested "a man identified as H. Z. for opening fire with a hunting rifle on the Haret Saida area," without elaborating on his affiliation.
Al-Asir's office issued a statement clarifying that "the protests he is staging across Leb are popular protests that are open for everybody's participation and he cannot prevent anyone from taking part in them, and the presence of any person among the public does not turn him into a loyal and close supporter of the holy man."
"Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir disavows such acts of violating security and inciting strife and calls on security authorities to strike anyone who performs or incites such acts with an iron fist," the statement added.
The army has been imposing strict security measures around Asir's Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in the Sidon suburb of Abra, after the Islamist holy man staged several demos to protest claims that Hizbullah gunnies are residing in two apartments near the mosque.
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03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Shells fired Sunday during clashes inside Syria struck the outskirts of the Akkar towns of al-Noura, al-Qashlaq, Wadi al-Hour, Janine and Amar al-Baikat, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.
LBCI television reported that the shelling also targeted the outskirts of the town of al-Arma.
"The residents of the northern town of Qashlaq are urging the Lebanese army to protect them from the Syrian shelling," reported Future TV.
NNA said the shelling sparked fear and anxiety among the residents of the border towns.
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03/18/2013 00:00 ||
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BEIRUT - Syrian rebels have seized several weapons depots in the village of Khan Toman in Aleppo province after days of fierce clashes, a military source told AFP on Sunday.
"Opposition fighters gained control over weapons and ammunition stores in the village of Khan Toman in southern Aleppo province on Saturday after fierce fighting that went on for more than three days," the source said. He said the stores contained "a small number of ammunition boxes remaining after the main stock was transferred over a period of more than four months."
But activists said the opposition had taken control of "huge reserves," and video posted online showed fighters examining dozens of crates containing weapons and ammunition inside one warehouse.
"These are spoils from (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad," the person filming the warehouse says, as fighters move from crate to crate, urging the camera to film the weapons.
"Rockets, film these rockets," they say. "These are 107-mm calibre, made in Iran," they add. "These are the rockets that Bashar al-Assad was hitting us with."
The video says the capture of the depots was led by the Martyrs of Syria and the Hittin Brigades of the rebel Free Syrian Army.
The capture of the arms depots was confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog, which also reported "heavy fighting between regime forces and rebel fighters in the area of Khan Toman" on Sunday. The Observatory said most of the warehouses were under the control of Islamist fighters, adding that weapons captured included Grad rockets, mortar and tank shells and hand grenades, as well as three tanks and several military vehicles.
In Aleppo, it said, clashes erupted between Islamist fighters belonging to an Islamic court body in the city and members of the rival opposition brigade in the Sakhur neighbourhood.
"Three civilians were killed, along with four members of the court's police and a judge for the court," the group said, adding that the clashes erupted when members of the body tried to arrest a member of the rival brigade. The dead included the head of the body's police force, the Observatory said, a Syrian who fought in Iraq and was imprisoned there.
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#1
See also GLOBAL TIMES > HUNDREDS OF OF ARMED JIHADISTS ENTER SYRIA [from Jordan] WHERE 15,000 OTHERS ARE WARMING UP, i.e. in training or near completion of training.
and
* CHINESE DAILY FORUM > [SANA = Al-Watan Newspaper]SCORES OF TUNISIAN + YEMENI TERRORISTS ENTERED SYRIA, FIGHTERS FOR MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD MOVEMENT CROSS JORDAN TO FIGHT IN SYRIA.
As things stand, the Bammer likely has a better chance of initiating milaction agz Bbay Assad in Syria than war wid Iran, as perhaps best indic by curren reports of the US PENTAGON MULLING DRONE STRIKE OPERATIONS FOR SYRIA ESPEC AGZ AL-QAEDA FRONTS + ALIGNED.
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
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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.
At least eight people were killed when a massive car bomb in the center of Mogadishu. Reports say a loud explosion was heard near the National Theater.
Khaleda Zia
Dhaka -- At least 22 vehicles were torched at different parts of the capital ahead of the BNP-led 18-party alliance's 48-hour countrywide hartal beginning at 6am on Monday.
[Dawn] Security forces achieved yet another success in the ongoing targeted operation against 
[Dawn] Unknown militants set off an explosive device early on Sunday morning damaging four CD shops in Mattani area in the outskirts of Peshawar near Main Kohat road and the bordering area with Darra Adamkhel, DawnNews reported.
[Dawn] One of the prime characters of the 
At least 12 people were killed on Sunday in attacks in southern and northern Iraq, dpa reported citing security officialsas saying.
BEIRUT - Syrian rebels have seized several weapons depots in the village of Khan Toman in Aleppo province after days of fierce clashes, a military source told AFP on Sunday.
