Sixty suspected Taliban and five members of the Afghan security forces were killed in a major new clash in southern Afghanistan, a top Afghan army commander and police said. The fighting, the latest in a dramatic upsurge of violence in Afghanistan that has left around 350 people dead, erupted Tuesday after an Afghan army patrol came under attack in volatile Uruzgan province. "We launched a massive search and clean-up operation after the attack in which our troops spotted and killed 60 Taliban," said General Rahmatullah Raufi, who commands Afghan forces in the south.
12 to 1 kill ratio, the security forces are getting better and better. Or the enemy is throwing raw cannon fodder into the meat grinder
Four soldiers were killed, he said. A policeman also died in the attack, the ministry of interior said on Wednesday. Three soldiers and three police were also wounded in the fighting near Tirin Kot, the provincial capital, Raufi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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The Taliwackers are down to teens and drunks now. 12 to 1 isn't that bad, especially when you don't have to pay them.
LASHKARGAH, Afghanistan -- A C-130 military cargo plane carrying the British ambassador to Afghanistan caught fire today as it landed in the country's volatile southern province of Helmand. Officials say one of the plane's tires burst upon landing -- sending debris into the engine and causing it to ignite. No one was hurt in the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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Militia battles have raged again in the Somali city of Mogadishu with twelve people killed and 32 others wounded in the renewed fighting. Two militia groups are responsible for Mogadishu's worst gun battles in over a decade.
That's saying something.
Ibrahim Maalim, a militia member close to Somalia's internal security minister Mohamed Qanyare, said seven people had been killed and 20 people wounded in fighting between the Islamic courts militia and a warlord alliance in the Siisii area. That adds to five deaths and 12 wounded in overnight fighting already reported earlier in the day.
Ali Nur, a member of the warlord alliance, said fighting resumed in the afternoon after an overnight clash in the same area. Nur said he expected the death toll to rise since the combatants were firing mortars, anti-aircraft missiles and other heavy machine guns at each other from close range. "I can see the mortars and missiles the militias are firing," Nur told Reuters by phone from Mogadishu. "The death toll will rise because some of the mortars are falling on buildings nearly five kilometres away."
And they were aimed four klicks the other way.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 00:25 ||
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Egyptian security forces announced Wednesday they discovered a weapons depot in the Sinai peninsula containing TNT explosives, 20 landmines, a computer and terrorist plots. Al-Ahram newspaper described it as the biggest depot in Sinai. The Ministry of Interior announced yesterday the full details of the terrorist operations in Dahab and Al-Joura in Sinai on April 24, 2006. Suspects' confessions linked "Palestinian fundamentalists" to financially supporting the terrorist cell and granting them a mobile.
I'd guess that'd be Hamas, or at least its Popular Resistance Committees mask...
The Palestinian group trained the terrorists on manufacturing explosives and using them. The Interior Ministry pointed out the operations were committed by the Al-Tawhid and Jihad group. Seven terrorists were killed, including the cell's leader, and 22 others were arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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It might also be al-Qaeda in Gaza, depending on when that particular group got set up.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 0:03 Comments ||
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Egypt bargained hard to get the Sinai back as its Land for Peace bonus. Be careful what you wish for, 'tis said.
#6
My guess is they can repurchase those weapons off the back of the police van. In fact, there were probably way more weapons found, but expected sales called for low numbers in the press release.
The rarely-seen head of Uganda's feared rebel Lord's Resistance Army has appeared in a DVD to call for an end to a 20-year war with the government. It is said to be the first footage for a number of years of Joseph Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. He appears with the vice-president of southern Sudan's autonomous government, which has offered to mediate. Mr Kony faces charges of incitement to rape, murder, looting and abduction. The LRA is also accused of kidnapping thousands of children and forcing them to fight in the conflict.
In the recording, Mr Kony is seen taking $20,000 in cash from Riek Machar, the vice-president of the Southern People's Liberation Movement/Army. Mr Machar says the money is to halt rebel attacks in southern Sudan and is not to be used for weapons. Mr Kony accepts Mr Machar's offer of mediation and says he has "no problem" with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. "It is really possible we can end this war," Mr Kony says. But he says he is unconvinced by Mr Museveni's desire for peace. "If we talk to Museveni, it will take three days before he comes and attacks us," he says.
Mr Kony adds: "Most people do not know me... I am not a terrorist... I am a human being, I want peace also."
"A piece of this and a bigger piece of that and...."
The former altar boy and self-proclaimed mystic, who has said he wants to run Uganda along the lines of the biblical Ten Commandments, agrees to end attacks in southern Sudan. "There will be no exchange of fire between our people and your people... we are all brothers, we are all Christians, we are all blacks, we are all Africans."
Mr Kony and four other LRA commanders are wanted by The Hague criminal court.
Mr Museveni said this week he would guarantee Mr Kony's safety if peace talks were agreed by the end of July. Tens of thousands of people have died and two million have been displaced in the LRA conflict. The LRA is accused of brutal attacks, often mutilating its victims.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2006 08:18 ||
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Sudan must have cut off his money supply. Can't have a Lord's Resistance Army, if you have no Islamist money to pay them.
I wonder who's bringing pressure to bear on Sudan?
SANAA, Yemen, May 25 (UPI) -- Yemeni public prosecutor Abdullah Alafi revealed that a court specializing in terror cases will next week begin the trial of 23 suspected al-Qaida members.
Alafi was quoted as saying Thursday in the weekly September 26, mouthpiece of the Defense Ministry, that interrogation of the suspects was completed and they will be referred to trial next week on charges of belonging to the terrorist group led by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden. "These are among detainees with the security agencies whose trial was decided after their cases were studied and reviewed," Alafi said.
Of the suspects, seven are accused of forming an armed gang for carrying out terrorist operations. Alafi pointed out that 315 people suspected of belonging to al-Qaida have been freed for lack of evidence, including 95 recently let go.
Didn't even have to dig a tunnel to the mosque next door.
He also revealed that 12 people are currently being tried by the military court on charges of facilitating the escape of 23 Qaida prisoners from the central intelligence prison in Sanaa in February. Among them are prison security officials.
Alafi said that of the 23 escapees, nine have been arrested or have surrendered to the authorities. "As for the remaining fugitives, security agencies are still chasing them," he said.
Yemen has been active in combating terrorism. But of late, this country on the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula has a new concern, Somalia, where al-Qaida is reported to have established a new foothold in the region. Separated from Yemen by a narrow waterway, the Yemenis fear Somalia`s instability could spill over into other countries in the region.
Somalia 'is a source of concern,' Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu-Bakr Abdallah al-Qurbi, told United Press International during an interview in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. Al-Qurbi said other countries in the region, such as Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti were also concerned.
'Any spot like Somalia where there is no stability and where extremist elements are gathering is not only a danger to itself but also to surrounding countries,' al-Qurbi said.
An alleged British terror cell talked of blowing up London's Ministry of Sound nightclub, a court has been told. One of the accused Jawad Akbar said they would not be blamed for killing innocent people, a jury at the Old Bailey has heard. Akbar, 22, and Omar Khyam, 24, both from Crawley, West Sussex, appeared to discuss possible targets in secret security surveillance recordings.
Seven of the men deny conspiring with a Canadian to cause explosions. Four of the men also deny having chemicals suitable for bomb-making.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2006 08:31 ||
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F*cking Nazis. If they'd pulled this off there'd be a few mosques in the UK transformed to rubble now. The muslim community should thank their lucky stars for the intervention of MI5.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/25/2006 9:36 Comments ||
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Howard, too right!
But reading the "british" Broadcasters article I can't seem to find the word muslim or islam.
Perhaps they are trying to obscure the motivation?
See the article below for the stuff snipped from this one, as these are the eight Libyans referenced in that article.
Anti-terrorist police who arrested eight Libyans in a series of dawn raids yesterday believe they may have thwarted the next wave of suicide bomb attacks on British and US forces in Iraq.
The suspects, picked up at the end of a year-long investigation centred on Manchester, are being held on suspicion of either encouraging al-Qa'eda or helping to fund some of its atrocities. But intelligence sources say that some of them may have been planning to fly out to Iraq as suicide bombers. Some are regarded as so dangerous that police and Home Office officials are seeking their immediate deportation. In the meantime they are being held at police stations across Greater Manchester.
Intelligence sources suggested last night that some of those under arrest may have helped to recruit and train terrorists. They regarded the operation as a "pro-active strike" against people suspected of encouraging terrorism. Some of the intelligence is believed to have surfaced last June when police raided the Manchester home of a suicide bomber who had blown himself up in an attack four months earlier.
The man, a 41-year-old French national of north African origin, was the first person to travel from Britain to attack coalition troops in Iraq. He had spoken to friends at a mosque in the city of his desire to fight jihad, or holy war, in the Middle East. In this case, intelligence was supplied by the Iraqi security services. The bomber was unknown to MI5 but fits the profile of the "jihadists" who went to fight for the greater Muslim cause in Bosnia, Chechnya and or Afghanistan.
Security sources suspect there is a European network that supplies fighters and suicide bombers to Iraq, though just a "trickle" set out from Britain.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 00:49 ||
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If they're so dangerous, why are they being deported instead of being hanged?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/25/2006 9:36 Comments ||
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I hear Uncle Muammar has a shiny new spot welder...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/25/2006 10:35 Comments ||
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Shift the problem? Dead people don't boom.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/25/2006 21:06 Comments ||
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Around 500 British police officers raided houses across the country on Wednesday in a major operation targeting people suspected of planning terrorist attacks overseas. They arrested eight people in early morning raids, seven in Manchester, northern England, and one in Merseyside, the area around Liverpool in the north west, police said.
They later said they had arrested a ninth person and that one of the nine had been released. "An extensive operation targeting individuals suspected of facilitating terrorism abroad is under way," a police spokesman in Manchester said, without giving further details. Police were due to give a news conference in Manchester at 10 a.m. (0900 GMT).
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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At least 11 Russian soldiers and police have been killed in Chechnya in the last week in what one official said was a sign rebels were mobilising for the summer, officials said on Wednesday.
The dreaded summer offensive.
Police said separatist guerrillas had attacked a military base late on Tuesday in the lawless Vedeno region in Chechnya's mountainous south, killing four and wounding three. The attack came a week after six soldiers and special forces were killed by an attack on a column in the Kurchaloi region east of Grozny, said a source in the local military command.
Separately, the officials said one member of a police team investigating a bomb attack in the capital Grozny was shot dead and another injured when they were asking members of the public if they had seen anything.
"Relative calm had been attained in the republic, but sadly this has been violated recently," Ali Yasayev, the pro-Moscow head of Grozny's Oktyabrsky region, told reporters at the scene of the killing. "This is the third time this week when the rebels have attacked police officers and servicemen (in Chechnya)."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 00:48 ||
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Australian commandos have landed in East Timor in an effort to quell three days of increasing violence. About 150 troops secured the airport in the capital, Dili, amid reports of mounting casualties in the city. A further 1,300 Australians, and troops from Malaysia, New Zealand and Portugal are also heading to East Timor. Reports say a number of people have died and many have been injured in Dili, where disgruntled ex-soldiers are fighting government troops. Australia's ABC radio reported that a fleet of ambulances were requested after a battle outside Dili's main police station.
A UN official in the city described "constant gunfire" around the organisation's compound, and said the army was "on the rampage". "Nobody knows actually what's going to happen, because the law and order seems to be totally collapsed," Jawad Omar told ABC. A South Korean national was shot in the neck during the fighting and is recovering in hospital.
East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta admitted on Wednesday that his government "could not control the situation". Australia has experience of providing military aid to East Timor, as it led a UN-military force into the country in 1999 to end the unrest sparked when the population voted for independence from Indonesia.
A Kurdish separatist group has claimed responsibility for a fire that swept through a cargo area at Istanbul's main Ataturk Airport on Wednesday afternoon local time.
Officials had said the blaze - which injured three people, caused extensive damage and delayed flights - was probably caused by an electrical fault. Officials did not mention the possibility of foul play, but the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility, according to the Europe-based Firat news agency, which is the group's mouthpiece. TAK said it was an "act of sabotage" to protest against Turkey's treatment of the Kurdish minority. There was no way of independently confirming the claim.
Istanbul governor Muammer Guler told Turkish television that the blaze may have been caused by an electrical fault. "There has been no loss of life, but we have suffered large-scale material damage," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 00:07 ||
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The Kurds in Iraq oughta warn off their cousins from more stupid moves, lest they shoot the entire clan in the foot.
Traffic has returned to normal after the Geneva police encircled the United Nations square shortly and closed all exits and entries to it for some two hours suspecting a number of parcels. Spokesperson of the UN security confirmed that traffic returned to normal after bomb squads discovered that it was a false alarm. A police spokesperson had explained to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) earlier in the afternoon that there were suspicions about mail parcels addressed to the UN.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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A Pakistani immigrant was convicted yesterday of plotting to wreak havoc in the heart of the city by blowing up the Herald Square subway station.
After a four-week trial, a Brooklyn federal jury needed just 10 hours to find Shahawar Matin Siraj guilty of conspiring to place an explosive device inside a garbage can or under a bench.
The Islamic-bookstore employee - whose lawyers presented a defense that he was merely a dimwitted dupe - sat emotionless until the jury forewoman read out read out the panel's verdict on the four-count indictment.
"Guilty, your honor," the juror told Judge Nina Gershon, prompting Siraj, 23, to let out a brief sigh, close his eyes and slightly drop his head into chest.
Siraj was busted Aug. 27, 2004, just days before the Republican National Convention was set to kick off.
The goal of the blast - as he stated on numerous video and audio recordings that the NYPD secretly captured - would have been to cause economic harm, not carnage and death.
His sinister scheme was unraveled by a wired-up paid NYPD informant, Osama El Dawoody, who Siraj thought was part of an Islamic brotherhood ready, willing and able to pull off a terrorist strike.
Both Siraj and his co-conspirator James Elshafay - a diagnosed schizophrenic who pleaded guilty shortly after their arrest and testified against Siraj - were caught discussing nitty-gritty details of their plan, including targets, how big the bomb should be, how to get nuclear materials and different disguises to use when they planted the bomb.
"The verdict is an important milestone in safeguarding New York against plotters, whether homegrown or foreign," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
But Siraj's lawyer, Martin Stolar, insisted his client was entrapped, saying, "This was a manufactured crime.
"This is not somebody who is a terrorist."
Siraj faces life in prison when he is sentenced on Oct. 5, but both Stolar and prosecutors believe he will receive a much lighter prison-stint.
BROOKVILLE, Ind. -- Ron Zimmerman is coming home to Indiana today. Zimmerman, the Connersville native and former Brookville police sergeant, was killed by a suicide car bomber May 17 while training Afghan police officers in Afghanistan.
His body will be brought first to Franklin and then Fayette counties by a police motorcade today. Connersville and Brookville police officers will accompany Franklin and Fayette county deputies and Indiana State Police in picking up the body at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to bring it back home.
In Brookville, citizens are asked to line up beginning at 10:30 a.m. along Main Street and a short memorial service is planned for when the motorcade arrives, shortly before 11 a.m. at the Brookville Police Department, 461 Main St. The motorcade will then continue on to Connersville where funeral services will take place Tuesday and Wednesday.
Zimmerman worked for DynCorp International in Afghanistan, training police to fight that country's illegal drug trade. He had previously served as a police adviser for a year in Kosovo. Let's not only honor his sacrifice and remember his family in our thoughts and prayers. Let's also ask ourselves, are we making the world a better place while we are here - because Ron Zimmerman certainly did. And let's appreciate those who do while they are still here. God bless Ron Zimmerman, his family and his loved ones.
#2
Amen to the above. We just had a funeral in our town for our first loss in the WOT. He was on the chopper in Afghanistan that went down May 5. Here's a link to the story in case anyone wants details. There's a great pic with the story also.
TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - A co-defendant who was acquitted of all charges in the Florida terrorism trial of ex-college professor Sami al-Arian has been deported to the Palestinian territories, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.
Federal agents took Sameeh Hammoudeh from a prison near Tampa on Monday and escorted him to Ramallah in the West Bank. He had agreed to be deported after pleading guilty to a separate tax fraud charge. Hammoudeh's wife and six children were taken to Ramallah in February. "The order of deportation has been carried out. Sameeh Hammoudeh is in Palestinian territory," said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
So long, loser, enjoy your stay in Ramallah. Say 'hi' to the IDF for us.
#2
Not so, (Your prejudice is showing) She has to be either a native American, or descendent of Americans to get a job at State,
Just for argument, what about all the residents who were already living in what is now Texas, Arizona, California, New Nexico (Etc) when they becane States?
Did you think they all changed their names to Anglo ones?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/25/2006 8:16 Comments ||
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Ramallah is too good for al-Arian. Should have kicked him out of the airplane over Gaza.
Posted by: ed ||
05/25/2006 9:10 Comments ||
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#4
My niece marred an Hispanic whose surname is Gonzalez. His family has lived in Colorado for 200 years - even before the territory became a part of the US. Let's not get too engrosed with Hispanic surnames.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/25/2006 9:43 Comments ||
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#5
Sheesh! The story's got nothing to do with race. Back on point guys, please?
#6
A spokeswoman for Immigration & Customs Enforcement works for DHS. And yes, she needs to be a U.S. citizen (by jus solis, jus sangre or naturalization).
#7
Besoeker, a warning: no more of the racist crap or insinuations. It simply won't be tolerated here. AoS.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2006 10:21 Comments ||
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I like the idea of tossing Sami out the cargo door over gaza. With any luck he will land head first into the Arafish memorial/car wash/falaful stand. I still remember his interview with OReilly, it was ominous that he was a teacher but he is main stream in their world now.
A Pakistani immigrant was convicted on Wednesday of plotting to blow up a New York City subway station in a case that shed light on police investigation tactics since the Sept. 11 attacks. Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23, faces a maximum life sentence after a Brooklyn federal court jury convicted him of conspiring to place and detonate an explosive on the city's mass transit system, among other charges.
During the five-week trial, Siraj claimed he was entrapped by an overzealous police informant twice his age, Egyptian Osama Eldawoody, 50, who met the younger man in an Islamic bookstore while spying on mosques for the New York police. During the trial, prosecutors played taped conversations between the two men in which the younger man discussed plans to bomb the Herald Square subway station in midtown Manhattan.
Siraj's defense attorney Martin Stolar argued his client was "not the brightest bulb in the chandelier" and was easily led by Eldawoody. Siraj questioned new powers granted to police after they lobbied for increased surveillance of mosques they believed could harbor Islamic extremists. Eldawoody testified in 2003 and 2004 he served as the "eyes and ears" of the police and was paid more than $100,000 to report about daily mosque activities, including prayers.
Prosecutors said Siraj had the will to carry out a plot supporting his extremist views. Their case was strengthened by the testimony of a co-conspirator who pleaded guilty in the case and an undercover police officer who said Siraj openly supported al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The police department considered the case an example of a wider focus on suspects such as Siraj who are not affiliated with any major extremist groups. "The verdict is an important milestone in safeguarding New York against terrorist plotters whether home-grown or foreign," said New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 00:20 ||
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A Pakistani immigrant was convicted on Wednesday of plotting to blow up a New York City subway station in a case that shed light on police investigation tactics since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The case "shed[s] light on police investigation tactics" but apparently says nothing about jihadis.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/25/2006 7:17 Comments ||
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Alternate Title: "We Surrender!"
Karachi, 25 May (AKI) - (Syed Saleem Shahzad) - Sources in northern Pakistan have told Adnkronos International (AKI) that Islamabad is rapidly reviewing its policies on Waziristan and will eventually withdraw its troops and recognise the Pakistani Taliban militants who in practice run the tribal region. A clear sign of this shift in policy is the recent appointment of retired Lt. General Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai - widely considered a foe of Washington - as governor of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). which borders the tribal area.
For the past four years, Pakistani security forces have been battling Taliban militants in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan under the banner of the US-led war on terror. Tens of thousands of Pakistani troops have been deployed in the lawless tribal belt of Waziristan, which lies on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, in order to hunt down Islamic militants. Both Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters are believed to have fled into the area after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
However sources say that a defeat of the security forces in North and South Waziristan is inevitable. Reports say that Pakistani forces are unable to move on the ground. Even within the regional capitals of Miran Shah in North Waziristan or Wana in South Waziristan where they are based, the Pakistani troops are at the mercy of the local Taliban commanders.
The pro -Taliban militants have provided a more efficient and rapid system of justice readily available to the tribal people of Waziristan and it is also free of cost. Reports of long queues of people outside the Taliban offices in South Waziristan seeking solutions to their grievances and also help through the Taliban's policing system, show the popularity of the Islamist militia in Waziristan.
Sources said that there are orders from Washington for a Tora Bora-style bombardment of Waziristan, referring to the US bombing of the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in 2001 in their search for al-Qaeda leaders. However Islamabad is reluctant to carry out such an operation as the number of troops killed in the region will likely increase in any attempt to suppress the Taliban. It is believed that the pragmatic approach demands a Pakistani military retreat, and sources say that Pakistan has already decided to do so, as signalled by Orakzai's appointment as governor of the North West Frontier Province.
Orakzai who retired as an officer of the Pakistan Army in 2004, has, according to a report published on the website Asia Times Online in 2004, "been in Washington's bad books since last year [2003], when he visited the US and openly condemned the behavior of US authorities towards Pakistanis." The report goes on to say that "Orakzai was an official guest, but was forced to go through a plethora of screenings and checks at the immigration counter on his arrival. As well as complaining about this particular incident, Orakzai spoke against what he felt was discriminatory behavior against Pakistanis at functions hosted by the Pakistani embassy in the US".
As such, the appointment of Orakzai, who is also a native of the tribal region, is a clear signal that Pakistan has reviewed its policy and is aiming towards a reconciliation with the local Taliban in Waziristan.
A grand jirga (council of tribal elders) is already being formed. Pakistan's six party religious alliance, MMA as well as some top religious figures from all over the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) are the main drivers of this formation. The jirga shall be comprised of top religious scholars from all the seven tribal agencies, members of the national assemblies and senate of the tribal belt, the chief minister of the NWFP as well as other dignitaries respected among the Taliban.
The grand jirga will negotiate with the Taliban in North Waziristan where the security situation is volatile. Pakistan's federal government is in no position at the moment to withdraw its forces and yet if they continue in North Waziristan, they are very likely to lose more lives or have their troops deal with injuries and physical disabilities on a daily basis. At the same time the Taliban has suffered few losses as their bases are difficult to access.
"The grand jirga will only give Pakistani security forces an honourable face-saving way to withdraw and although formally it will not be mentioned, practically the administration will be handed over to the Taliban," sources told AKI. Still sources say that while Pakistan may be ready to give up its powers in the tribal region to the Pakistani Taliban, it remains to be seen if such a move will appease the militants and pave the way for a ceasefire.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2006 14:36 ||
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Our government needs a refresher course on why we are against the Taliban and what the definition of "ally" is. If we let Musharaf 'reconcile' with the Taliban, then this war has been meaningless, and we will rival the Europeans we ridicule for world-class appeasement. The Taliban will be back in power and we will be back to pre-9/11.
Al Queada = Taliban = Jihadist = Enemy of Western Civilization.
There is no distinction to be made.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
05/25/2006 15:07 Comments ||
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#4
This is the natural evolution (i.e. devolution) for these "people". This should alter the ROE and give the green light to actions deemed necessary by the commanders on the scene (e.g. hot pursuit, etc.).
#8
Reports of long queues of people outside the Taliban offices in South Waziristan seeking solutions to their grievances and also help through the Taliban's policing system, show the popularity of the Islamist militia in Waziristan.
#9
This looks a lot like it will give the U.S. permission to go bonkers in Wazoo.
Question for everyone. Can the U.S. get a base of operations set up close to the border?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/25/2006 16:13 Comments ||
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#10
This is a GOOD thing. If the Pakis pull back, then we can go after it. Our base of operations can be very close, just across the border in Khost and other locations.
#11
Colombia tried the same thing in regions of that country,essentially giving safe haven to FARC...predictably the results were nt good and a new president had to come in and clean up the mess...if true this is nt good for Afghanistan or the Paks unless the Paks are simply going to say we don't own it you(US) take care of it...creating a Cambodian bombing campaign and all the hell that would create with world opinion...it may be our only option...I'm taking the report with a grain of salt for now
#12
Sources in northern Pakistan have told Adnkronos International (AKI)
I'll start thinking about this when it's a reputable news agency with active voice quotes from named people whose titles indicate they actually know what's been done.
Now we hear that Commander Khaleelur Rehman has been given his marching orders barely a year from when he was appointed Governor of the NWFP. This is ominous. It suggests a turnabout of 180 degrees in General Musharrafs perspective on FATA, the JUI and Talibanism. The irony is that Mr Rehman took a hard line against the insurgents in FATA and against their JUI supporters in the NWFP government on the precise orders of General Musharraf. Now he has been sacked for carrying them out. Indeed, Commander Rehmans head has been offered as a sop to the very elements who, as General Musharraf recently admitted, had double-crossed the army in Waziristan taken its jirga-recommended money and used it to fuel Talibanism in the region! Unfortunately, this new flip-flop on Waziristan policy suggests dangerous trends. One, it seems to be staking Pakistans national-security interests at the altar of General Musharrafs personal political interests. It is aimed at strengthening the JUI and encouraging it to defy the pressures of its Jamaat i Islami ally to heave General Musharraf out by a series of million-man marches. Hence the recent statement by Maulana Fazalur Rehman that the JUI would participate in elections and saw no reason to abandon General Musharraf. Two, it is bound to make the US nervous because it will lead to a resurgence of Talibanism in Afghanistan. Indeed, it is almost as if General Musharraf is deliberately thumbing his nose at Hamid Karzai and the international community. Equally, since the move is simultaneously designed to bring the JUI back in power in the next elections, it should be disquieting for those at home and abroad who see the countrys future in terms of a pluralistic, moderate and democratic dispensation based on free and fair elections. Combined with General Musharrafs soft tactical spot for the jihadis, the ambiguities and contradictions in his policies are coming to the surface in the run up to the elections next year.
Posted by: john ||
05/25/2006 18:57 Comments ||
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#15
Agit Prop indeedy. But this from the same site is purdy good...
#16
Binnie has paid Perv a huge one for this. Who paid? What's aligning global jihad-wise. Is Perv cutting loose from the Iran hit that's coming? or digging in for his share? Stange things are happening.
#17
Has Pakistan released its Waziristan territory to become an independent state? No? WTF, so then you're saying that Pakistan (and the greater area) would snore through American aggressive action inside Pakistan's borders?
Will these words come to haunt: "the popularity of the Islamist militia in Waziristan"?
At least eleven people were injured Wednesday in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir when militants tossed a powerful grenade at a security bunker in the city, even as Indian Prime Minister asked the security forces to deal firmly with the militants.
The explosion occurred when militants threw a hand grenade at an Indian Central Reserve Police Force bunker in uptown Srinagar Wednesday afternoon, news agencies reported. "Three CRPF soldiers and eight civilians were injured in the explosion. The injured have been shifted to the hospital and the condition of one is serious, " police told reporters in Srinagar Wednesday.
The explosion took place three hours after the arrival of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to preside over the two-day roundtable conference on Kashmir issue in Srinagar.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and other militants have entered into Pakistan from Afghanistan, Geo television quoted a US television as reporting. The US television said that Pakistani officials had confirmed Osama's presence in Pakistan through a telephone call made by the Al Qaeda leader, said Geo. However, Pakistan Army spokesman Maj General Shaukat Sultan rejected the US television's report, saying no government department would ever share that kind of sensitive information with the media.
Yeah. Who knows what would happen if it got out?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
OBL is pakistans greatest national treasure. How many billions has perv raked in to help with the war on terror? Has anyone checked the books lately in Pak? No telling what he spent it on.
Clashes between security forces and Bugti tribesmen in various parts of Dera Bugti on Wednesday left four security personnel injured. "Four security men were injured in clashes with Bugti tribesmen in Loti, Samnay and Herog areas," tribal elder Alam Khan Bugti told reporters on telephone. Also, unidentified miscreants fired rockets at Pir Koh and Sui gas field, which missed the target.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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QUETTA: Pakistani law enforcement agencies arrested a former director of the Afghan secret service, former Kandahar governor and four other Afghans during a raid on a refugee camp in Loralai district on Wednesday.
This wouldn't have anything to do with the Afghan government, the Brits, and the U.S. pointing out that Pakland hasn't been lifting many fingers against the Talibs, would it?
Abdul Rashid, director of Afghanistans secret agency, and five of his companions were arrested in a raid on an Afghan refugee camp in the Zarr Karez locality, 30 kilometres from Quetta. They had entered Pakistan illegally and taken refuge in an Afghan refugee camp.
Is he going to mention that they've been operating from there for the past 4 1/2 years?
"Law enforcement agencies were tipped off, raided the camp and arrested Rashid and his five aides - Abdul Qadir, former governor of Kandahar province, Asadullah, Faizullah, Abdul Rauf and Ghulam Jiliani, official sources told Daily Times, without giving deignations of the rest of the four people.
I thought not.
The authorities also claimed to have seized a huge quantity of Pakistani and foreign currency from those arrested. Sources said that the former Afghan secret service director and his aides were involved in providing weapons and financial assistance to Baloch insurgents, adding that they were in Pakistan to fan insurgency. The arrests endorse Pakistani authorities statements that Afghanistan was behind the Baloch insurgency, sources said.
Right. I'd say it rather demonstrates that Pakistan is behind the Afghan insurgency, but then I believe in logic, too.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD, Iraq Three terrorists found emplacing improvised explosive devices were killed at approximately 3:30 p.m. May 24 near Abu Ghraib just west of Baghdad.
Coalition Forces from 1st Battalion, 1st Marines Regiment, observed three terrorists digging holes and placing IEDs, which positively identified them as terrorists with hostile intent. Coalition Forces then engaged and killed ... (depriving them of a fair trial)
... all three terrorists. There was no reported damage to Coalition Forces personnel or equipment.
The US military announced that the central criminal court of Iraq last week convicted 12 insurgents, sentencing one to death and four others to life in prison. It said that Mahdi Ahmed al-Juburi was found guilty of leading an insurgent cell in the northern city of Mosul after admitting to conducting operations against Iraqi security forces.
The military said: "The defendant believes in killing coalition forces, Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guard members because he says they are not enforcing God's will.
"The defendant has regularly kidnapped people, interrogated them and then killed them, frequently in front of their families." He also allegedly confessed to killing an army colonel.
The other four men sentenced to life had been arrested by US-led coalition forces after a search of their house turned up a badly beaten Egyptian who had been held for the past 18 days and a large number of weapons. The remaining trials involved sentences ranging from two to 10 years for cases of weapons possession and illegal entry into Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/25/2006 00:37 ||
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At least 11 people were killed on Tuesday in attacks, including a car bombing on a busy Baghdad street, in renewed violence during the first week of Iraq's new cabinet, which had set restoring security as its top priority. An interior ministry source said that the car bomb in the southeastern suburb of Baghdad, al-Jadeeda, targeting a police patrol killed five people and wounded seven others. The suburb had been repeatedly hit for the past three days.
Police said that three-day labourers on their way to work were killed after gunmen in a car raked their mini-bus with bullets on the road from Baquba to Khalis, northeast of the capital. In Balad Ruz, a bomb went off near the courthouse, killing a 10-year-old boy and wounding two others.
In Baghdad, professor Ali Hussein Ali was walking on Palestine Street in the east of the city on his way to work at Technology University after a car filled with gunmen shot him dead and drove off. An industry ministry employee was shot dead in a similar attack on the same street.
On Monday night, Shi'ite city council member Saleh Mahdi Jabr from the restive mixed Sunni-Shi'ite town of Salman Pak was mowed down by gunfire outside his home.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 00:23 ||
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#1
In Baghdad, professor Ali Hussein Ali was walking on Palestine Street in the east of the city on his way to work at Technology University after a car filled with gunmen shot him dead and drove off.
Six civilians were injured in two explosions here and a university professor was killed in Bakuba on Wednesday. A security source from the Ministry of Interior told KUNA that a bomb exploded near the Ministry of Culture causing the injury of three civilians and damaging a car. Another bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad injuring three women, and a third one blew up near a shop close to Al-Shuhada square in Bakuba without causing any damage.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Police announced Wednesday militants shot university professor Ahmad Hussain in Palestine road in Baghdad leading to his death.
In Kirkuk, a militant, was injured as he was trying to attack an Iraqi Army vehicle using a hand grenade. A source from the Iraqi Army told KUNA the militant threw the grenade at the vehicle but it bounced back at him after hitting the car and then exploded injuring him seriously. The source said soldiers arrested him and moved him to a multinational medical unit at the US base for treatment.
In the mean time, militants riding a civilian car kidnapped an Iraqi civilian, a brother of a famous doctor, while Iraqi Army arrested a convict in Kirkuk city.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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An Iraqi general and two college students were killed, and another was kidnapped here by unidentified militants Wednesday, security sources said. The deputy chief of special protection forces in Baghdad municipality General Ahmed Dawoud was shot dead while on his way to work by unknown militants, the sources added. No other details on the incident were available. Meanwhile, an armed group killed two students from the Baghdad Arts and Heritage Institute and kidnapped a third in central Baghdad.
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So if Pals vote to be a terrorist state is that a declaration of war and they can be exterminated? Just asking is all. gotta read this to believe their "recognition and renouncing violence" It's all about their right to kill jews and destroy Israel. Declaration for the history books.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has given Hamas 10 days to endorse a plan accepting the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel or he will submit the plan to a referendum. Here is the text of the 18-point plan, drafted by senior Palestinian militants imprisoned in Israel:
. The Palestinian people at home and in exile seek to liberate their land and realize their right of freedom, return and independence, and their right to self-determination, including their right to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital on all the land occupied in 1967, guaranteeing the right of return for the refugees, liberating all the prisoners and detainees, drawing upon our people's historic right in the land of our ancestors, the U.N. charter, international law, and what international legitimacy guarantees.
2. Expediting the realization of what was agreed upon in Cairo in March 2005 regarding developing and activating the role of the PLO, and the joining of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in this organization as the legitimate and sole representative of the Palestinian people wherever they exist; and in line with development on the Palestinian front according to democratic bases and to strengthen the representation of the PLO, the legitimate and sole representative of our people, in a way that would enable it to carry out its responsibilities in leading our people at home and in exile, in mobilizing them, defending their national, political, and human rights in all domains and functions, regional and international; the national interest constitutes that a new national council be formed before the end of 2006 in a way that guarantees the representation of all the forces, factions, national and Islamic parties, and groups everywhere, all sectors, institutions, and personalities on the basis of proportional representation, attendance, and effectiveness in the political, struggle, social, and popular domains, and in protecting the PLO as a wide frontal framework, a comprehensive national coalition, and a national framework that assembles all Palestinians at home and abroad as a higher political reference.
3. The Palestinian people's right to resistance and upholding the choice of resistance by all means, and concentrating the resistance in territories occupied in 1967, alongside political action and negotiations and diplomatic work, and continuing popular resistance against the occupation in all its forms, places and policies, and giving importance to expanding the participation of all sectors, fronts, groups and public in this popular resistance.
4. Devising a Palestinian plan for comprehensive political action, unifying the Palestinian political discourse based on the Palestinian national consensus program, Arab legitimacy, international resolutions fair to our people, which are represented by the PLO, the PA its chief and government, national and Islamic factions, civil society groups, public figures to be able to reactivate and develop and mobilize Arab, Islamic, and international political, financial, economic and humanitarian assistance to our people and national authority and in support of our people's right to self-determination, freedom, return, independence, and confronting the Israeli plan to impose the Israeli solution on our people, and stand up to the unjust siege on us.
5. Protecting and developing the Palestinian National Authority as the nucleus for the upcoming state, this authority that was founded by our people, and their struggle, sacrifices, blood and suffering of its children; higher national interest requires the respect of the temporary constitution of this authority, and the laws in effect, respecting the responsibilities and authorities of the elected president for the will of the Palestinian people in free, democratic and fair elections, and respecting the responsibilities and authorities of the government which was granted confidence by the parliament, and the importance and need of creative cooperation between the presidency and the government, and joint action, convening periodical meetings between them to settle any disputes with brotherly dialogue on the basis of the temporary constitution and the higher national interest, and the need to carry out a comprehensive reform for all national institutions, particularly the judiciary, and respecting the law on all levels, and implementing its decisions, and supporting and strengthening the rule of law.
6. Forming a national coalition government in way that would guarantee the participation of all parliamentary blocs, particularly
Fatah and Hamas, and the political forces who want to participate on the basis of this document and a common program to alleviate the Palestinian situation locally, on the Arab front, regionally and internationally; and facing the challenges with a strong national government that has the popular and political Palestinian support from all forces, as well as Arab and international support, and can carry out the reform program, combatting poverty, and unemployment; and providing the best possible assistance to the sectors that endured the responsibilities of steadfastness, resistance, the uprising, and was the victim of the criminal Israeli aggression, particularly the families of martyrs, injured, and the owners of houses and properties destroyed by the occupation, as well as the unemployed and the graduates.
7. Managing the negotiations is the authority of the PLO and president of the PA on the basis of upholding Palestinian national interests and realizing them, provided that any fateful/decisive agreement be presented to the new PNC to ratify or be put up to public referendum if possible.
8. Liberating the prisoners and detainees is a sacred national duty that must be carried out by all national and Islamic forces and factions, the PLO and the PA's president and government and the PLC and all resistance formations.
9. Efforts must be redoubled to support and look after refugees and defending their rights. A popular representative conference of the refugees must be convened, which would yield agencies that would follow up on reaffirming the right of return, upholding it, and calling on the international community to implement Resolution 194 calling for the right of refugees to return and compensation.
10. Working to form a united resistance front called the "Palestinian resistance front" to lead and carry out the resistance against occupation and to unify and coordinate the resistance action and form a unified political reference for it.
11. Upholding the democratic path, holding general and periodic free, democratic and fair elections according to the law, for the president and the legislature, and the regional and local councils; and respecting the principle of peaceful rotation of power; and pledging to protect the democratic Palestinian experience and democratic choice and their results; and respecting the rule of law, the necessary and public freedoms, freedom of the press, and equality between citizens in rights and duties without discrimination; and protecting the gains made by women, promoting and strengthening them.
12. Rejecting and condemning the unjust siege on our people led by the United States and Israel, and calling on Arabs, publicly and officially to support the Palestinian people and the PLO and its PA; and calling on Arab governments to implement Arab summit resolutions, the political, financial, economic, and public ones that are in support of our Palestinian people, their steadfastness, and their national cause, and reaffirming that the PA is committed to Arab consensus and joint Arab action.
13. Calling the Palestinian people to unity and cohesion and closing ranks, supporting the PLO, the PA's president and government and supporting the steadfastness and resistance in the face of the aggression and siege, and rejecting the interference in internal Palestinian affairs.
14. Rejecting all forms of disunity, division and what leads to strife (sedition), condemning the use of weapons regardless of the justifications to settle internal disputes, banning the use of weapons between the children of the same people and reaffirming the sacredness of the Palestinian blood; and committing to dialogue as the only means to resolve disputes, expressing opinions by all means, including opposing the authority and its decisions according to the law; and the right of peaceful protest, organizing rallies and demonstrations and strikes provided they are peaceful, clear of weapons, and do not transgress on people and their property or public property.
15. National interest requires searching for the best appropriate means to continue to engage our people and their political forces in Gaza in their new situation in the battle for freedom, return and independence, liberating the
West Bank and Jerusalem in a way that forms a real force for the steadfastness and resistance of our people there. National interest requires a reevaluation of the most successful ways and means of struggle against the occupation.
16. The need to reform and modernize the Palestinian security institution and its sectors to make it more able to carry out its role in defending the nation and citizens, facing up to the occupation and aggression, maintaining public order and security, implementing laws, ending chaos, public display of guns, confiscating weapons of chaos, which greatly harm the resistance and defame its image and threaten the unity of the Palestinian society; and the need to coordinate and organize the relation between the forces and resistance groups, and to organize and protect their weapons.
17. Calling on the legislative council to continue to issue laws that regulate the work of the security institutions and their different branches, and to ensue a law that would ban political party membership (action) for those who are members of the security bodies, and committing to the elected political reference stipulated in the law.
18. Work to expand the role and presence of international solidarity committees and groups, lovers of peace, to support the steadfastness of our people and their just struggle against occupation and settlements, the racist separation wall politically and regionally, and for the implementation of the ICJ decision to remove the wall and the settlements and their illegalities.
Signed by:
Marwan Barghouti, Fatah, secretary general
Sheik Abdel Khaliq al-Natsche, Hamas, senior leadership
Sheik Bassam al-Saadi, Islamic Jihad
Abdel Rahim Malouh, PFLP, deputy secretary general
#1
In a nutshell the UN says the PLO (controlled by Fatah) is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians, so Hamas is going to have to join the PLO or they will sic the UN on them.
#2
Local media "excerpts" in my area mention only the three points that kind of hint at democracy. Go figure. I'm interested in breadth of reporting this and spin by elimination.
#5
So basically they are voting on whether or not the jews should throw themselves into the sea? (I admit I fell asleep halfway thru reading the excerpt)
#7
Read halfway into #1 and realized it was already a POS. Couldn't kill conquer the Jews. Couldn't terrorize the Jews. Take a vote among the conquered, that's sure to make the Israelis up and leave.
Posted by: ed ||
05/25/2006 23:22 Comments ||
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz accepted recommendations from defense officials to allow for the transfer a limited amount of weapons and ammunition to the Palestinian Authority's presidential guard in light of growing threats to Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' life.
"Giggle, no, really? You think they'll fall for it? Ok, lets do it."
Olmert and Peretz reached the decision prior to the prime minister's departure for the United States earlier this week, Channel 2 reported Thursday.
Senior defense sources said Thursday that the arms will be delivered to the guard by way of a third-party state (all indications are either Egypt or Jordan) solely for the purposes of protecting Abbas. The move is seen as a response to the continued strengthening of Islamic organizations, which have managed to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip.
This will be better than Joe Gibbs giving out free handguns at an Eagles - Giants game
Last week, Haaretz reported that the Islamic Jihad has formulated a plan to assassinate the PA chairman.
"Did you hear? Abbas is a zionist stooge. They're even arming him. Pass it on"
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2006 14:02 ||
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"Hot air balloons and blunderbusses? What the hell use are THEY?"
"Not much. But it sure oughta be amusing, anyway..."
#6
LH, we make jokes about serious subjects all the time. I know I personally make cancer, death, and limbless jokes on a regular basis.
Lets not pretend that the people celebrating 9/11 in the streets deserve any better.
Shame on you.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/25/2006 15:32 Comments ||
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#7
Lighten up LH - you've been whiney lately. You think a snarky comment on a blog makes a bit of diff whether they successfully whack Abbas or not? Grow up
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/25/2006 15:36 Comments ||
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#8
Olmert doesnt much want him to die, and certainly wants credit for helping.
Yeah, they're always so grateful for the help. Especially when it comes to the Zionist Entity.
Remember who you're dealing with here, LH.
Who will fall for what? the Pals will fall for sabotaged Israeli weapons? The Israelis will fall for the claim that Abbas is an assanation target? The Israelis will fall for the claim that abbas will use the guns for his body guards? That IJ will be fooled into thinking Israel likes Abbas?
Really, its got to be a tad CLEARER to be funny.
And the only really clever thing is the last. Except its so wrong (Israel really DOESNT want Abbas killed, though its probably not as bad as if Dahlan were killed) that even that isnt terribly funny.
GAZA CITY - Twelve Palestinians were wounded on Thursday in scattered clashes in Gaza City between gunmen from a Hamas paramilitary group and Fatah-dominated security forces, medical sources said. Ten people were injured, including five civilians, in a first altercation in southwest Gaza City, the sources said.
Another five, including one officer in critical condition, were members of the preventive security service, loyal to the ousted Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas. Gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades left smoke billowing from a burning vehicle at the downtown scene, an AFP journalist said.
Springtime in Gaza. The crackle of gunfire, the billowing clouds of smoke, the wiff of decaying flesh
An hour later, a second exchange of gunfire between the rival forces wounded two members of the presidential guard, which is also Fatah controlled. The second skirmish occurred outside Gaza City's Showa Conference Center, where Palestinian leaders earlier in the day called for an end to deadly Fatah-Hamas feuding at the opening session of the two day "national dialogue."
The first gunbattle began as security officers returned from burying the body of Nabil Hodhod, a Palestinian security chief who was killed in a car bombing on Wednesday -- an attack still unclaimed - security sources said. Security sources accused Hamas gunmen of starting the melee, but a Hamas commander on the scene blamed the security services for starting the troubles.
"Members of preventative security provoked a member of our force and opened fire, and our forces returned fire," said Yussuf al-Zahar.
The two-day gathering of Palestinian leaders in Ramallah and Gaza City, billed as national dialogue, is meant to bring an end to Fatah-Hamas infighting that has left 10 dead and dozens wounded in recent weeks.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2006 12:38 ||
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N.B.: include a source please! I had to go digging. AoS.
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he will call a national referendum on accepting a Palestinian state alongside Israel if Hamas does not agree to the idea within 10 days. Sounds good so far, but wait for it...
Abbas' surprise announcement was a political gamble that could either help resolve the Palestinians' internal deadlock or lead them into a deeper crisis with the militant Hamas group. Such a vote would effectively ask Palestinians to give implicit recognition to Israel by accepting a Palestinian state on land occupied by Israel in 1967. Approval of the 18-point plan would provide a way out of the impasse over acceptance of Israel, which has led to an international freeze on aid to the Hamas-led government. Wait for it...
Hamas officials were divided over the idea of a referendum, with several giving their blessing, but others dismissing it as an attempt to undercut the Hamas-led government.
A referendum, which Palestinian pollsters expect to pass, could provide cover for the militants to moderate without appearing to succumb to Western pressure. Such a vote could also renew pressure on Israel to return to the negotiating table rather than imposing borders on the Palestinians.
However, Amar Duaik, director of the Palestinian election commission, said calling a referendum might not be easy. He said the parliament would have to pass a referendum law or Abbas would have to issue a presidential decree. "If there is no agreement (between Hamas and Fatah), I expect to have troubles and differences," Duaik said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said if there is no breakthrough in long-stalled peace efforts in the coming months, Israel would withdraw from much of the West Bank, solidify its control of large settlement blocs and unilaterally draw its border with the Palestinians. The Palestinians reject Olmert's unilateral plan, and Abbas' announcement Thursday appeared part of a hurried effort to show the world there is a willing Palestinian partner for negotiations with Israel.
Abbas said that if 10 days of dialogue between Hamas and his Fatah movement did not lead to a joint political platform, he would call a referendum 40 days after that. The dialogue began Thursday. The referendum would ask Palestinians to either accept or reject a document that had been drafted earlier this month by senior Palestinian militants jailed in Israel. The five-page document calls for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War. Theeerre it is.
No doubt it includes a right of return.
The draft was negotiated by leading prisoners from Hamas and Fatah over the period of four weeks at Israel's Hadarim Prison, where top Fatah prisoner Marwan Barghouti is being held. The talks took place in a wing for Palestinian security prisoners, where 120 inmates are held, said Barghouti's lawyer, Khader Shkirat. After the factions' political leaders gave their blessing, Barghouti drafted an outline that was revised in the negotiations, Shkirat said. Many of the sessions took place in the prison yard.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/25/2006 12:10 ||
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#1
After the factions' political leaders gave their blessing, Barghouti drafted an outline that was revised in the negotiations, Shkirat said. Many of the sessions took place in the prison yard.
Any final boundary will have to be negotiated anyway.
The point of the referendum is to delegitimize Hamas further, when there are street battles between Fatah and Hamas.
Ya think Hamas is gonna take it? That would mean breaking with the Damascus leadership, with Syria and Iran, and with IJ. While I cant rule it out, I think its unlikely.
The Egyptian interior ministry disclosed this week that the al Qaeda bombers who killed 120 people in Sinai in two years were trained by an unnamed Palestinian extremist religious group in the Gaza Strip.Knock Knock Wake Up Call It was the first time Cairo had linked al Qaeda with Palestinian terrorists.
DEBKAfiles counter-terror sources report from the investigation of the Dahab attack last month which left 24 dead that the Gaza-based facilitators, the suiciders and al Qaedas Sinai network used Israeli Pelaphone mobile phones as their primary means of intercommunication. Israeli mobiles... this is good as Israel was prepped for it. They mine and do more with their cell systems than the NSA is accused of doing...
An instrument was found in the debris of the Dahab attack. It was believed at first to belong to one of the Israeli holidaymakers at Dahab. But when Israeli security examined the recorded calls at the phone company, they found the three suicide bombers led by Youseff Mohrab had used it for conversations from Gaza.
Note they automaticly examined the RECORDED CALLS of any cellphone they find at the scene!.
This means CDLs and recorded calls. CDLs giving full phone info. There is enough info in CDL associated with a call to aim a JDAM... and I bet the folks back in GAZA were talking on a cellphone too so if they could have caught it in real time instead of datamining they could have put a JDAM right down the planer's throats.
The Egyptians named two Gazan Palestinians as the al Qaeda teams collaborators: Abu Suleiman, who provided money and mobile phones, and Maged al-Deri, who trained them in the use of bomb-making and firearms. Friends and faimily of the calls to the n'th degree with a full database of all the calls to listen too. A really quick search all the links just "being" there. heh
The phones turned out to have belonged to the Pelaphone company, Tel Aviv.
DEBKAfiles sources reveal that Gaza was also the source of the bombers pay - $1,500 plus ten thousand Egyptian pounds apiece for blowing themselves up at target. With their pay and explosives, they set out from Gaza to spend several days before the attack in El Arish in northern Sinai, in the care of a Palestinian Bedouin called Tamer Nuseirat. Before the operation, they left the money with their families.
Bet they called Tamer to be waiting for them and bet he called somebody. Bet Israeli agents start pressing the families for the the money so they won't be considered targets.... This is really excelent.. Now if the NSA/FBI would apply it to the Daley Machine and stuff in Louisiana..
#1
But i thought this was those pesky Bedouins and Copts?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/25/2006 13:43 Comments ||
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#2
that the reports are that pelaphones were used will confirm the feverish conspiracies that Mossad was behind the bombings
of course, assuming the reports are correct, it would have been Paleos buying the phones from Israelis (probably from Arab Israelis), but facts don't stop conspiracy theories.
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Violence spread Wednesday from the volatile Gaza Strip to the West Bank, where Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians in this usually placid city after a riot broke out during an Israeli arrest raid.
The fighting in Ramallah, the Palestinians' administrative and commercial capital, was the most intense in the city since a massive Israeli military incursion into the West Bank four years ago when they laid siege to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound. Now forays by Israeli troops into the city center are rare, particularly during daylight hours.
For Palestinians already anxious about lawlessness and infighting in Gaza, a spread of violence into Ramallah represents a further erosion of security in daily life. Unlike Gaza, a deeply impoverished and devoutly religious militant stronghold, Ramallah is a secular and cosmopolitan city. It is home to a large middle class, including many intellectuals and Palestinians who hold U.S. citizenship.
The army said undercover Israeli troops entered the city to arrest Mohammed Shoubaki, who is believed to be a financier for the militant group Islamic Jihad. Arrests of militant figures by the Israeli army are common, but they almost always take place late at night or before dawn to avoid sparking a confrontation with the populace.
Witnesses said the trouble broke out when local youths spotted the troops, who were in plainclothes and driving a battered car with Palestinian plates. After the Israelis entered a building in search of Shoubaki, the youths surrounded the structure, disabled the undercover squad's vehicle and began throwing stones. In response, regular army units were sent in.
The melee, which began as a hail of bricks and chunks of concrete, quickly escalated into gunfire -- at a time when the city center was crowded with people leaving work and students emerging from schools. Shopkeepers hurriedly pulled down the heavy metal grates on their storefronts when the shooting began. An army spokeswoman, Capt. Noa Meir, said soldiers at first used tear gas and rubber-coated bullets to contain the crowd, but switched to live ammunition after gunmen mixed in with stone-throwers fired on them.
The Israeli raid, in which Shoubaki was taken into custody, drew a sharp response from senior aides to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose headquarters are only a short distance from the scene of the fighting. "Israel is determined to stage provocations in a manner that will take us back to a cycle of violence," said Nabil Abu Rdeineh, an Abbas adviser.
All four of the dead were believed to have been armed and taking part in the riot, according to the Israeli military. Hospital officials said more than a dozen of those injured were passersby. It was not clear why the army chose this time and place to arrest Shoubaki, who is based in the northern West Bank town of Kalkiliya. He is suspected of funneling money to Islamic Jihad, which has carried out eight suicide bombings in Israel over the past 18 months. More at link.
#1
Ramallah? Usually placid? ROFL! It's a shithole of violence - google "fight and Ramallah". Prepare to scroll. What a load
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/25/2006 9:20 Comments ||
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#2
How about we never Google again. Remember, Google is not our friend. Google is being used to silence anti-Islamic views. Although true and accurate, articles condeming Islam have been banned from Google, by Google.
They have clearly chozen the enemy's side.
An alleged agent of the group al-Qaeda in Iraq told a chilling story of hijacking, kidnapping and murder in the name of holy war Tuesday, a day after the Jordanian government announced his arrest in an operation carried out in Iraq.
In a videotaped confession broadcast on Jordanian state television, Ziad Khalaf al-Kerbouly related his deeds without a trace of emotion. Though Jordan's government billed him as a high-ranking al-Qaeda operative arrested in the murder of a Jordanian citizen, Kerbouly's account made him sound more like a simple foot soldier for Iraq's most prominent insurgent organization.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 00:54 ||
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#1
Stumbling across a picture of Dasouqi's four young daughters, he said, "I had a kind of a reaction."
If his "reaction" was a thousand times stronger I'd be tempted to think he might have been human. Perhaps he's misunderstood or could be rehabilitated. Any of you handwringers want to volunteer? Or do you just want to sit on the side and complain with no real purpose in mind?
Posted by: grb ||
05/25/2006 3:51 Comments ||
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The militant group al Qaeda in Iraq denied that an Iraqi man arrested by Jordan was operating on behalf of the terrorist group, according to a statement posted on an Islamic Web site. "We of al Qaeda in Iraq want to point out that we don't even know the person shown on Jordanian television," the statement said.
"The one we know had a mole at the end of his nose! You see a mole? Huh? Huh?"
Jordanian TV aired a confession of a man who identified himself as Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly and said he worked for al Qaeda in Iraq, a group led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "All that has been shown was merely a play written by the Black House gang and performed on TV by their agents in the region," the statement said, referring to the White House and Jordan, a close ally of Washington.
The statement said 73 men accused of being aides to al-Zarqawi had been reported captured or killed over the years, and suggested the militant leader could not possibly have that many associates.
Certainly not anymore, but it does explain the perpetual openings for number 3's.
"For three years, satellite channels and newspapers have frequently reported that an aide to the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was killed or captured... We wonder, as any other wise men would, how many of Sheik al-Zarqawi's aides or deputies have actually been arrested?"
The statement's authenticity could not be independently verified.
Jordan said al-Karbouly was al Qaeda in Iraq's point man for receiving goods stolen by Iraqi insurgents, to supply terrorist operations and for sale inside and outside Iraq. In the Jordanian broadcast, al-Karbouly admitted to killing a Jordanian truck driver and described working with al Qaeda in Iraq figures to capture two Moroccan embassy employees and two Kurds on Iraq's border with Jordan. He said that after he killed the truck driver, Khalid al-Dessouki, he answered the man's mobile phone and identified himself as "al Qaeda and a member of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group."
Al-Karbouly said al-Zarqawi knew details of his operations and that the terrorist network gave him specific instructions about who to target. "I was instructed by al Qaeda leaders to get any Jordanian because Jordanians deal with the Americans and bring goods to them (in Iraq)," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 00:08 ||
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#1
Mission Impossible
Posted by: john ||
05/25/2006 13:23 Comments ||
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Five Hamas activists were shot by unidentified militants in two separate incidents in Gaza Wednesday morning, security and medical sources said. Sources said the victims who were severely injured were of one family. They were moved to a hospital for treatment.
In Gaza City, two militants of Al-Qassam brigade, the military wing of Hamas were injured when unidentified gunmen opened fire at them earlier today. The two incidents came two days after Hamas and Fatah have agreed on withdrawing armed militants from the streets of the Gaza Strip in an attempt to reduce tensions. A Fatah activist was shot dead and another was wounded by Palestinian Interior Ministry's Special Forces three days ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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Salah Al-Din brigades, military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the bombardment of the Yemit settlement north of the Gaza Strip. The brigades said the attack came in retaliation to Israeli aggression on Ramallah. Earlier on Wednesday, four Palestinians were killed in Ramallah after clashes between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Israeli army said that two rockets were launched on an Israeli village north of the Gaza strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Please. Two paleo rockets does not a bombardment make.
Israel's military has conducted a multi-service exercise to test its capability to launch an invasion of the Gaza Strip. The military's Southern Command launched the exercise on Tuesday that included representatives of the army, navy and air force. Military sources said the exercise focused on the ability of the three services to communicate with each other and share situational awareness. "This does not mean we're invading Gaza," a military source said. "That's a political decision. Our job is to be ready for anything."
The exercise consisted largely of simulation of scenarios in a test of command and control capabilities. The sources said the military has sought to ensure that army, air force and navy units assigned to the invasion would be interoperable.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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One of Asia's top terror suspects, who is hiding in Indonesia, is unlikely to flee the country because regional police are keeping a close watch for him, Indonesia's police chief said on Tuesday.
Indonesian police raided a militant safehouse on Java island on April 29 but the main target, Noordin Mat Top, a Malaysian and one of Asia's most wanted men, escaped. "He cannot flee the country because of cooperation among ASEAN countries to nab him," National Police Chief General Sutanto said in Malaysia. "He is a threat to all nations. There is no sign yet that he has fled the country."
Uh-huh. Sure.
Sutanto was speaking to reporters at the annual ASEAN police chiefs' meeting, which focused on closer ties to combat trans-border crimes such as smuggling, piracy and terrorism.
Indonesia has suffered from several attacks in recent years blamed by police and intelligence officials on the militant Southeast Asian network Jemaah Islamiah, linked to al Qaeda. Noordin was one of the group's leaders, police say, although recently he may have formed his own organisation.
The deadliest bombing attack tied to Top and Jemaah Islamiah was in Bali in 2002, when 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed. Other attacks include blasts at a luxury hotel and the Australian embassy in Jakarta, and a second attack in Bali last year.
Sutanto said the ability of any militant group to mount fresh attacks in Indonesia had greatly been reduced following a police crackdown and dwindling support for their cause. "Now their capability is reducing and we hope that it will reduce further," he said.
Malaysia's police chief said the ASEAN chiefs would soon launch a new electronic database system to keep better track of the whereabouts of criminals in the region. "You have access to information such as missing passports," Bakri Omar said. "That would facilitate the tracking down of criminals, trans-border crimes."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 00:52 ||
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A mine blast in northern Sri Lanka killed three government troops Wednesday, after the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels ruled out direct talks with the president to try preventing a return to full-scale civil war. The anti-personnel mine exploded in the government-held town of Vavuniya on the frontier with rebel-held territory. The area's police chief, Gamini Silva, said two soldiers and one policemen were killed. "The mine was detonated through a remote control device as government troops were returning to an army camp after checking and clearing roads in the area," Silva told The Associated Press by telephone. Vavuniya is 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of the capital, Colombo. The blast came a day after the Tamil Tigers, or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, rejected pleas from Buddhist and Catholic priests to hold direct talks with Sri Lanka's president to prevent the island nation from sliding back into all-out civil war.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2006 00:00 ||
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#6
I also think whoever controls the Basji keep the students from getting too coordinated beforehand then make sure they crack heads to set examples for the future. It clearly works.
Beirut- Lebanon's government has rejected Syria's arrest warrant against MP Walid Jumblatt, warning that such a step would not help improve the ties between Beirut and Damascus. All the cabinet members present voted in support of Jumblatt, including Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh. Parliament is the only authority that can rule in relation to the warrant because Jumblatt has parliamentary immunity. Should it decide to reject the warrant, it will then be totally ineffective in practice.
The Lebanese government rejects and denounces such methods," said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi after a cabinet meeting Wednesday. "These warrants do not help restore stability and do not pave the way to reasonable relations between our two countries," he told reporters,
In Moscow, Mikhail Margelov, who heads the Russian Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee, said his country will have a "strong reaction" against the Syrian measure that he described as "naïve." Margelov, after talks with parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri, praised Jumblatt as a friend of Russia. "We consider Walid Jumblatt a dear and close friend of Russia taking legal measures against this person is a naïve act," said Margelov.
Asked if Russia will condemn the Syrian move, he said: "We will follow this issue closely and of course if any extreme measure is taken, then Russia's reaction will be strong."
"We'll wait and see which way the wind blows"
A Syrian military magistrate on Monday issued an arrest warrant to detain Jumblatt and delivered it to Interpol.
An Nahar newspaper reported Thursday that the summons was handed over to the Arab Interpol and not the international bureau of the police agency based in Lyon. It said the latter received a copy of the summons from the Arab organization.
"Here ya go! Hot potato!"
The newspaper said that Chief Investigating Magistrate Said Mirza, who attended the cabinet meeting, will forward the warrant to parliament, which is the most appropriate body to issue a response in this case based on Jumblatt 's parliamentary immunity. Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday suspended a parliamentary session after a row with anti-Syrian politicians over the summons against Jumblatt. He said that the file he had received from the judiciary was incomplete and he could not act upon it.
On May 3, Jumblatt was summoned by a Syrian military court to appear within seven days on charges of "inciting against Syria". Jumblatt is a key member of Lebanon's anti-Syrian parliament majority which has accused Damascus of involvement in a series of bombings, including the murder of former Lebanon's PM Rafik Hariri. In December 2005, Jumblatt called for regime change in Syria.
TEHERAN - Iranian security forces have killed five suspected hardline Sunni militants believed to have been involved in roadside murders in the restive southeast of the country, police said on Thursday. Quoted by state television, the police information centre said the five were killed in a district of Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province. An Iranian guard was killed and another injured during the operation.
On May 13, a group of 12 travellers were killed on a main road between the cities of Bam and Kerman. Police said a shadowy group called Jundallah (Army of God) claimed responsibility for the execution-style murders. Jundallah, headed by a figure called Abdolmalek Rigi, has claimed responsibility or been blamed for a string of armed incidents in Irans Sistan-Baluschestan province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sunnis form the majority in Irans Sistan-Baluchestan, although Shiite Islam is Irans official religion. Southeastern Iran is also a major thoroughfare for narcotics smuggled from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Europe and the Middle East.
Iranian officials have also accused Britain and the United States of supporting ethnic minority rebels operating within the Islamic republics sensitive border areas, amid a worsening stand-off over Irans nuclear ambitions.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2006 08:39 ||
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#1
"...Sunnis form the majority in Irans Sistan-Baluchestan, although Shiite Islam is Irans official religion."
a little known factoid about Iran is that no Sunni mosques are allowed in Tehran (only Shia mosques are allowed).
#2
Why does that not suprise me. This whole sectarian conflict thingy seems alien to me. Like Baptists and Lutherans killing each other for being Baptists and Lutherans.
Iran is ready to give up uranium enrichment for several years as part of a deal to allay Western fears over its nuclear program, the chief UN nuclear watchdog said today. But Mohamed ElBaradei, who met Iran's top nuclear negotiator in Vienna last week, said the question of Tehran's sensitive atomic research activities was still under discussion.
Next verse, same as the first.
Iran has publicly insisted on its right to enrich uranium on its soil. Yet Mr ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), suggested Tehran's position was more flexible. "The Iranians, as far as I know, agreed in principle that for a number of years (uranium) enrichment should be part of an international consortium outside of Iran," he said.
He said the Iranians told him that once negotiations resumed on their nuclear program, they were ready to apply the "additional protocol" to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty aimed at tightening inspections. "There is still this issue of Iran doing R and D (research and development) with regards to enrichment and that's an issue still being discussed," he said.
Mr ElBaradei, who sat down in Vienna last week with senior Iranian official Ali Larijani, said he briefed Rice on Tehran's position "which is rather different than the US point of view".
Since they want nukes and we don't want them to have them.
Mr ElBaradei has called for more direct US involvement in the discussions with Iran, which so far have been led by US allies Britain, France and Germany, but said it was up to Washington what role it chooses to take. He did, however, reiterate his call for the Americans to take part in an effort to provide Iran with security guarantees as part of an eventual deal. "At a certain point, if the negotiations were to move in the right direction, particularly when the discussion of security issues were to start, I would hope that the US will be able to join that," Mr ElBaradei said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 01:03 ||
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Move along, boyz, same thing the Norkies said/offered to Saint Bill.
Fifteen Iranian students have disappeared after clashes with police at the University of Tehran, according to Ali Nikusebti, a leader of Iran's largest students' organisation, Tahkim Vahdat. "We have no news of our classmates since last night" when the clashes occurred, Nikusebti told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Wednesday. "Officially no student has been arrested and we fear that the 15 are being held by the secret services or by fundamentalists acting under police protection," said the students' leader.
The clashes occurred after students - around 30 according to Iran's official IRNA news agency - protested in front of the dormitories of the University of Tehran against the new dean, Omid Zanjani. The government has recently named the cleric as rector - a choice rejected by the students who are asking for his resignation.
Students at the University of Tehran also said in a statement that they mean to commemorate the anniversary of the 1999 insurrection. In July 1999 thousands of students demonstrated in Tehran after the government shut down reformist paper Salam.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2006 01:00 ||
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#3
Man, it takes some stones to protest against the powers that be in Iran. As I'm sure most of you are I'm impressed with the level of courage these kids show.
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
05/25/2006 14:22 Comments ||
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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.
Sixty suspected Taliban and five members of the Afghan security forces were killed in a major new clash in southern Afghanistan, a top Afghan army commander and police said. The fighting, the latest in a dramatic upsurge of violence in Afghanistan that has left around 350 people dead, erupted Tuesday after an Afghan army patrol came under attack in volatile Uruzgan province. "We launched a massive search and clean-up operation after the attack in which our troops spotted and killed 60 Taliban," said General Rahmatullah Raufi, who commands Afghan forces in the south. 
Militia battles have raged again in the Somali city of Mogadishu with twelve people killed and 32 others wounded in the renewed fighting. Two militia groups are responsible for Mogadishu's worst gun battles in over a decade.
Egyptian security forces announced Wednesday they discovered a weapons depot in the Sinai peninsula containing TNT explosives, 20 landmines, a computer and terrorist plots. Al-Ahram newspaper described it as the biggest depot in Sinai. The Ministry of Interior announced yesterday the full details of the terrorist operations in Dahab and Al-Joura in Sinai on April 24, 2006. Suspects' confessions linked "Palestinian fundamentalists" to financially supporting the terrorist cell and granting them a mobile.
SANAA, Yemen, May 25 (UPI) -- Yemeni public prosecutor Abdullah Alafi revealed that a court specializing in terror cases will next week begin the trial of 23 suspected al-Qaida members.
An alleged British terror cell talked of blowing up London's Ministry of Sound nightclub, a court has been told. One of the accused Jawad Akbar said they would not be blamed for killing innocent people, a jury at the Old Bailey has heard. Akbar, 22, and Omar Khyam, 24, both from Crawley, West Sussex, appeared to discuss possible targets in secret security surveillance recordings. 
Around 500 British police officers raided houses across the country on Wednesday in a major operation targeting people suspected of planning terrorist attacks overseas. They arrested eight people in early morning raids, seven in Manchester, northern England, and one in Merseyside, the area around Liverpool in the north west, police said. 
Traffic has returned to normal after the Geneva police encircled the United Nations square shortly and closed all exits and entries to it for some two hours suspecting a number of parcels. Spokesperson of the UN security confirmed that traffic returned to normal after bomb squads discovered that it was a false alarm. A police spokesperson had explained to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) earlier in the afternoon that there were suspicions about mail parcels addressed to the UN.
A Pakistani immigrant was convicted yesterday of plotting to wreak havoc in the heart of the city by blowing up the Herald Square subway station. 
TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - A co-defendant who was acquitted of all charges in the Florida terrorism trial of ex-college professor 
A Pakistani immigrant was convicted on Wednesday of plotting to blow up a New York City subway station in a case that shed light on police investigation tactics since the Sept. 11 attacks. 
At least eleven people were injured Wednesday in Srinagar, summer capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir when militants tossed a powerful grenade at a security bunker in the city, even as Indian Prime Minister asked the security forces to deal firmly with the militants.
Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and other militants have entered into Pakistan from Afghanistan, Geo television quoted a US television as reporting. The US television said that Pakistani officials had confirmed Osama's presence in Pakistan through a telephone call made by the Al Qaeda leader, said Geo. However, Pakistan Army spokesman Maj General Shaukat Sultan rejected the US television's report, saying no government department would ever share that kind of sensitive information with the media. 
Clashes between security forces and Bugti tribesmen in various parts of Dera Bugti on Wednesday left four security personnel injured. "Four security men were injured in clashes with Bugti tribesmen in Loti, Samnay and Herog areas," tribal elder Alam Khan Bugti told reporters on telephone. Also, unidentified miscreants fired rockets at Pir Koh and Sui gas field, which missed the target.
QUETTA: Pakistani law enforcement agencies arrested a former director of the Afghan secret service, former Kandahar governor and four other Afghans during a raid on a refugee camp in Loralai district on Wednesday. 
The US military announced that the central criminal court of Iraq last week convicted 12 insurgents, sentencing one to death and four others to life in prison. It said that 
Six civilians were injured in two explosions here and a university professor was killed in Bakuba on Wednesday. A security source from the Ministry of Interior told KUNA that a bomb exploded near the Ministry of Culture causing the injury of three civilians and damaging a car. Another bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad injuring three women, and a third one blew up near a shop close to Al-Shuhada square in Bakuba without causing any damage.
An Iraqi general and two college students were killed, and another was kidnapped here by unidentified militants Wednesday, security sources said. The deputy chief of special protection forces in Baghdad municipality General Ahmed Dawoud was shot dead while on his way to work by unknown militants, the sources added. No other details on the incident were available. Meanwhile, an armed group killed two students from the Baghdad Arts and Heritage Institute and kidnapped a third in central Baghdad.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz accepted recommendations from defense officials to allow for the transfer a limited amount of weapons and ammunition to the Palestinian Authority's presidential guard in light of growing threats to Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' life. 
GAZA CITY - Twelve Palestinians were wounded on Thursday in scattered clashes in Gaza City between gunmen from a Hamas paramilitary group and Fatah-dominated security forces, medical sources said. Ten people were injured, including five civilians, in a first altercation in southwest Gaza City, the sources said.
Five Hamas activists were shot by unidentified militants in two separate incidents in Gaza Wednesday morning, security and medical sources said. Sources said the victims who were severely injured were of one family. They were moved to a hospital for treatment.
Salah Al-Din brigades, military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the bombardment of the Yemit settlement north of the Gaza Strip. The brigades said the attack came in retaliation to Israeli aggression on Ramallah. Earlier on Wednesday, four Palestinians were killed in Ramallah after clashes between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Israeli army said that two rockets were launched on an Israeli village north of the Gaza strip.
Israel's military has conducted a multi-service exercise to test its capability to launch an invasion of the Gaza Strip. The military's Southern Command launched the exercise on Tuesday that included representatives of the army, navy and air force. Military sources said the exercise focused on the ability of the three services to communicate with each other and share situational awareness. "This does not mean we're invading Gaza," a military source said. "That's a political decision. Our job is to be ready for anything."
A mine blast in northern Sri Lanka killed three government troops Wednesday, after the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels ruled out direct talks with the president to try preventing a return to full-scale civil war. The anti-personnel mine exploded in the government-held town of Vavuniya on the frontier with rebel-held territory. The area's police chief, Gamini Silva, said two soldiers and one policemen were killed. "The mine was detonated through a remote control device as government troops were returning to an army camp after checking and clearing roads in the area," Silva told The Associated Press by telephone. Vavuniya is 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of the capital, Colombo. The blast came a day after the Tamil Tigers, or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, rejected pleas from Buddhist and Catholic priests to hold direct talks with Sri Lanka's president to prevent the island nation from sliding back into all-out civil war.
Iran is ready to give up uranium enrichment for several years as part of a deal to allay Western fears over its nuclear program, the chief UN nuclear watchdog said today. But 
