KUNAR: Scores of heavily armed Taliban militants killed 13 Afghan soldiers in fierce clashes on Friday after storming an army post in the east of the country near the Pakistan border, police said. More than 100 militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and guns launched the attack in Nari district of Kunar province, attacking the post from three directions before dawn.
The attackers were heavily armed, a senior police officer in Nari district, who declined to be named, told AFP. We have recovered the bodies of 13 of our soldiers, the outpost has been nearly destroyed.
The attack was finally pushed back after several hours when Afghan military and police reinforcements arrived. One soldier was severely injured, police said.
Defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zaher Azimi confirmed the attack but said that exact casualty figures were not available. We are still in the process of gathering information, he said.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the assault in an email to AFP and said that the militants had seized all weapons and ammunition from the army post.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/13/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
just a preview
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2013 10:51 Comments ||
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#2
Comments from Karzai condemning the Taliban in 10...9...8...7....wait! Isn't he one of them.
Oh well, nothing to see here, no dead bunnies or puppies, the Taliban are nice Joe's they only kill our soldiers...
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/13/2013 13:48 Comments ||
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[AlAhram] Salafist Moslem is killed in Friday attack on cop shoppe in Tunisia's northeast, according to media and interior ministry
Tunisian police potted a Salafist Moslem after a group of assailants attacked a cop shoppe in the northeastern town of Hergla, the interior ministry and media reports said on Friday.
During the incident on Thursday night, police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse a group of Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... seeking to free one of their number being held there, private radio station Mosaique FM reported.
The 23-year-old was mortally maimed in the festivities, which continued into Friday morning, and four others were maimed.
The interior ministry said on its official Facebook page that 150 radical Islamists tried to break in to the cop shoppe, throwing rocks at security forces.
"To start, the police gave them a verbal warning, before firing tear gas to disperse them. The group persisted, so security forces were ordered to use live rounds, killing one attacker and wounding four others," the statement said.
Since the revolution that toppled the regime of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, radical Islamists have launched several attacks on cop shoppes across Tunisia.
Tunisia is facing a growing number of Islamist groups that authorities say are responsible for incidents such as the attack on the US embassy in Tunis in September and opposition politician Chokri Belaid's liquidation in February.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/13/2013 08:29 ||
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[Ynet] Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula have uncovered a secret cache of explosives in a desert area south of El-Arish, the Paleostinian Ma'an News Agency reported.
According to an Egyptian security source, the explosives found include three cases of TNT weighing some 250 kilograms (about 550 pounds), a machine gun and eight anti-tank mines.
[YemenPost] Several Saudi-based newspapers reported on Monday that Arwa Baghdadi, a female Saudi national believed to have links with al-Qaeda hard boyz would have fled to Yemen after a court convicted her on terror charges.
Although a Saudi court established that Arwa had indeed joined up al-Qaeda upon the death of her brother, Mohammed Baghdadi, she was subsequently released back into the family fold, under the strict authority of her father and brother, who became her legal guardians and guarantors of sort.
Arwa was jugged Please don't kill me! by the Saudi authorities in December 2010, in Wadi al-Dawasir after she opposed the security sources and appeared as a threat to public order.
On Monday, Arwa's mother, Huda al-Adhal made a distraught appeal to the press, asking for her daughter who bravely ran away accompanied by her brother, to return home to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... , where she said they would be treated with clemency.
Al-Hayat newspaper quoted on Monday her mother as saying "The authorities here are tolerant and forgiving. So please come back!"
Arwa explained that her son informed her of him and Arwa's plan to join Yemen al-Qaeda over a phone call.
The Saudi authorities are now searching for Arwa and her two children, two-and-a-half-year-old son Osama and four-months old daughter Khadijah, Anas Baghdadi, his wife, Afnan, Mohammed's widow and her four-month-old daughter Huda. (Mohammed Baghdadi died right before Arwa allegedly joined al-Qaeda).
Family members have appealed to both Arwa and Anas family loyalty, asking them to surrender themselves to the authorities and ask for forgiveness. An uncle, Hesham Baghdadi told the press that the state had shown clemency to repentant terror hard boyz in the past and had even provided them with tools to reintegrate society.
If indeed it is established that Arwa Baghdadi escaped to Yemen to join al-Qaeda, she would be the thirds female Saudi national to willingly cross the border to follow the terror group.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/13/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Something seems wrong with the concept of escaping TO Yemen.
[Jpost] US Embassy also a target of al-Qaeda plot, 'New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... ' reports; Turkish police arrest 12 in connection with plot.
Turkish police uncovered a plot linked to al-Qaeda to bomb a synagogue in Istanbul, the US embassy in Ankara and other targets, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
Twelve people were tossed in the slammer Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! during a raid on two houses in Istanbul and Corlu in February, according to the Times. Eight of them were Turks, two were Chechens and two were Azeris.
According to reports, the Turkish police seized nearly 50 pounds (22.6 kilograms) of plastic explosives with detonation systems, six laptops and other evidence.
Documents found on the computers, including photographs and floor plans, revealed preparations for kabooms on a synagogue in the Balat district of Istanbul, the US embassy and the Rahmi M. Koc Museum.
Turkish police said it was tracking an al-Qaeda man that arrived in the city of Tekirdag two years ago after receiving military training in Afghanistan. The surveillance on him led to the February raid.
In February, a Turkish leftist group bombed the US Embassy in Ankara and caused the death of a Turkish security guard. The attacker went kaboom! inside US property, blowing the door off a side entrance and sending smoke and debris flying into the street.
The most serious bombings of this kind in Turkey occurred in November 2003, when boom-mobiles shattered two synagogues, killing 30 people and wounding 146. Authorities said the attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.
A Chicago man accused in a fumbling, cloak-and-dagger plot to build a pipe bomb during last springs NATO summit pleaded guilty today and was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
Fumbling doesn't make it less dangerous...
Judge Kenneth Wadas handed down the sentence for Mark Neiweem, 28, who pleaded guilty to one count of attempted possession of an incendiary device, according to the Cook County states attorneys office.
Neiweem was one of the mooks in the Occupy movement. Such nice people...
Neiweem was arrested last May after undercover police officers infiltrated a group of alleged anarchists who had come to Chicago in the days leading up to the summit. According to the charges, Neiweem met with a member of the group in the Schiller Woods Forest Preserve and asked an associate if he had "funds for fun."
When the associate asked what he meant, Neiweem took him on a walk away from others and told him not to talk about their discussion because a member of their group had "diarrhea of the mouth" and his "reckless" text messages could bring law enforcement scrutiny, prosecutors alleged.
Neiweem allegedly told the associate that he wanted him to obtain material to make a pipe bomb. When they rejoined the others in their car, Neiweem allegedly crumpled a piece of paper and tossed it back to the associate, saying it was garbage.
The associate threw it out the window. Neiweem then fetched it and pressed it into the associate's palm, saying that if the associate bought the items on the list, Neiweem could build a pipe bomb, prosecutors said.
Neiweem, who is known as Migs, had been held on $500,000 bond since his arrest.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/13/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
future Columbia Uni lecturer with tenure
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2013 11:03 Comments ||
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KARACHI: At least four people, including an Awami National Party (ANP) activist were killed in separate acts of violence in the metropolitan on Friday.
A man affiliated with ANP was shot dead at Qasba Colony. Police officials said that unidentified armed riders targeted Bismillah Khan. The dead body was handed over to his family after completing medico legal formalities.
Police said that victim Rashid, 20, was killed while Rustam Ali and Sajid were wounded, when unidentified armed motorcyclists opened indiscriminate fire at them. All the victims sustained bullet injuries and were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC), where Rashid succumbed to injuries and was pronounced dead. Investigations into the incidents are underway.
A seminary leader was gunned down in Block-2 Nazimabad. SHO Faryad Bhatti said that victim namely Ghazanfar Ali, 62, was going to the mosque for offering Friday prayers, when unidentified assailants targeted him. He sustained bullet wounds and died on the spot. SHO Bhatti said that the deceased hailed from Kohat, and suspected that the motive behind the incident might be personal dispute. Further investigation is under way.
In another incident late night, a man was shot dead in Gulshan-e-Ameen within the limits of Sohrab Goth police station. Police officials said that victim Habibullah, 30, son of Asad Qureshi was targeted by unidentified pillion riders, who shot him dead. The victim's body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital by the police and later handed over to his heirs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/13/2013 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR: Banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has announced supporting the anti-polio drives on a condition that such campaigns were not used by the United States as a cover for espionage.
What nice people...
The Pakistani Taliban militants also placed the condition that their apprehensions about the vaccination campaigns being un-Islamic be removed.
They're asking that we convince them that their irrational fears are irrational. Somehow I don't think that's going to work...
If they can convince us that these polio drops are Islamic and the spy agencies are not using it to kill our fighters, we would have no objection to any vaccination drive which is in the public interest, TTP spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan said while talking to private news channel on Friday via telephone from an undisclosed location.
Referring to the Abbottabad incident which led to the capture of Osama bin Laden, Ehsan said vaccination drives were being used by the CIA to hunt down its Mujahideen.
If only our CIA was that clever...
Our opposition and suspicion to the vaccination drives have been increased manifold after the Abbottabad incident, he said.
The Taliban spokesman also denied any involvement in previous attacks on polio workers.
Must have been the Ruritanians...
We are not involved in attack on the polio teams and the threats given to them. We do have reservations against the drive but we are not attacking them, said Ehsanullah. Our strategy is very clear. We will not attack any public welfare institution and non-military installations, he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/13/2013 00:00 ||
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[Naharnet] A bomb went kaboom! near a Sunni mosque north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... on Friday, killing seven people, a police colonel and a doctor said, the latest in an uptick in violence in the runup to elections next week.
The bomber struck after prayers at the Omar bin Abdul Aziz mosque, south of Baquba, and also maimed another 25 people the sources said.
Iraq is to hold provincial elections on April 20, its first polls since 2010.
Attacks on candidates have left at least a dozen election hopefuls dead, according to an AFP tally. That, and the fact that only 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces will vote due to a government postponement has drawn the credibility of the elections into question.
Violence killed 271 Iraqis last month, the highest monthly figure since August, according to an AFP tally.
#1
While I think it was a good idea to go into Iraq, I don't think any of us quite understood how toxic the animosity between the Shia and the Sunni is.
They are tearing a country with enormous potential apart. Obviously they care more about their crazy dispute over the successor to Mohammed than they are about anything else.
That situation, until some prominent Shia and some prominent Sunni come forward and say "Enough"
Of course, the fanatics would kill any religious leaders who attempted to negotiate a peace between the two groups.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/13/2013 17:38 Comments ||
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The Israeli military said it fired artillery into Syria on Friday after its troops were shot at on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, in the latest of a series of shooting incidents on the once-quiet front, Reuters reported.
"No soldiers were injured and no damage was caused. IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers responded with artillery fire towards the source of the shooting. A direct hit was identified," the military said in a statement.
A military spokeswoman said she did not know whether it was Syrian army or rebels who fired at the Israeli troops and whether the fire was stray or deliberate.
Austria's Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said on Friday Vienna would have to assess daily whether it was safe enough for Austrian peacekeepers, who account for around 380 of the 1,000-strong U.N. mission, to stay in the Golan. In the past three months, Japan and Croatia said they were withdrawing their troops from the peacekeeping mission and if Austria quits the operation it is unclear whether any other nation will replace them.
Israel is anxious for the peacekeepers to remain, worried the Golan will become a springboard for attacks on Israelis by jihadist groups fighting Assad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/13/2013 00:00 ||
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An assistant village chief was killed in an ambush in Pattani province on Friday night. The victim was identified as Torleb Puten, 46, assistant chief of Moo 4, tambon Korlum in Yarang district. The attack occurred about 9:30 p.m. a local road in Mayo district.
Witnesses said Torleb was traveling heading down the road in his car when gunmen hiding in a roadside rubber plantation fired on him with assault rifles. He was hit several times and died on the spot.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2013 12:39 Comments ||
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#2
Looks iffy to me.
<7 minutes after the strike there's no dust in the air locally, and the air strike on the day he just happens to be there for that meeting.
Then wrapped up with lots of people talking to the camera "spontaneously"....
#3
the reporter makes comments about the time line that indicate significant editing. the tape is about the 7 min mark and he says that 15 minutes have passed since the strike. so at least 10 minutes edited out there. later at the other site, he makes a comment about how long ago the first strike was that suggests further editing out of 'boring' footage. furthermore the fact that the biggest fights being waged in the Arab Spring have been for western public opinion (and the arabs would far prefer uncle sugar to take out Assad without having to work it themselves) it is no surprise to me that they all want a moment of face time to play up their victim-hood.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
04/13/2013 20:35 Comments ||
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Syrian forces battled rebels in the central province of Homs near the border with Lebanon Friday as part of a counteroffensive aimed at regaining control of territory around the country and along strategic border areas, Associated Press reported.
With a fresh influx of weapons, opposition fighters have made significant gains in the past weeks, particularly in the southern province of Daraa, where rebels have been advancing in the region between the Jordanian border and the capital, Damascus. The province of Homs and its capital of the same name were the scenes of some of the heaviest fighting during the first year of Syrian conflict. The violence has escalated there in recent weeks, with Syrian war planes hitting the city daily. On Friday, troops clashed with rebels on the edges of the province along the Lebanese border.
The border area is strategically important to both sides fighting in Syria's civil war and battles there have been frequent in past weeks, particularly in and around the town of Qusair in Homs province. The area is considered vital to the Syrian regime because of its location along a road linking Damascus with the city of Homs, a strategic supply route for the military. The rebels also have been using the road to transport supplies and weapons from Sunni supporters in Lebanon.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday's clashes between soldiers and opposition fighters were concentrated around Qusair. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Overlooking Qusair from the Lebanese side are villages populated mostly by Shiite Muslim supporters of the Hezbollah militant group, who have supported Assad's regime during Syria's two-year conflict.
Also on Friday, Syrian warplanes carried out airstrikes around the country, hitting targets in Daraa in the south, in Hasaka province in the north east near the border with Turkey and in the northern city of Aleppo, parts of which have been under rebel control since last summer.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/13/2013 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.
