[Quqnoos] A roadside bomb struck a convoy of Ghazni governor, wounding two of his bodyguards Firday evening, an official say
The explosives laden into a motorbike went off as governor Osman Osmani of Ghazni was returning from a picnic, in the outskirt of the Afghan southern city, his spokesman Sayed Ismael Jahangir said.
"Governor Osmani is unharmed in the blast," spokesman Jahangir confirmed.
The remote-control mine struck the armored vehicle of governor of the southern restive Ghanzi province and partly damaged the vehicle, the official said.
The wounded guardians of the governor were taken to a nearest hospital in Ghazni city, Jahangir further said.
According to reports, a purported Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the life attempt on the governor of a key Afghan province.
Ghazni province, around 130km south of Kabul has turned a volatile region despite additional international troops have been stationed there.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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China has raised the death toll from ethnic rioting in its far west to 184 and detailed for the first time the ethnicity of those killed, while tension lingered over the city at the centre of the strife.
The official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday that 137 of those killed in the mayhem on July 5 in Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang, were Han Chinese, who form the majority of China's 1.3 billion population, including 111 men and 26 women.
Forty-six were Uighurs, the largely Muslim people of Xinjiang who share cultural bonds with Central Asian peoples. All but one of them were men. Uighurs make up 46 percent of Xinjiang's 21.3 million people, according to government statistics.
Xinhua said the other person killed in the attacks that erupted last weekend was a member of the Hui ethnic group, which is Muslim but culturally akin to Han Chinese. The brief report did not say whether the death toll included rioters who may have been killed by security forces.
The reaction on Urumqi streets to the official death toll reflected the deepening ethnic divide in Xinjiang, with Uighurs expressing disbelief in the number.
"That's the Han people's number. We have our own number," said Akumjia, a Uighur resident. "Maybe many, many more Uighurs died. The police were scared and lost control."
In Washington, meanwhile, two members of the US House of Representatives introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning the "violent repression" of the Uighur people by China. Separately, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday urged Beijing to stop the "assimilation" of its Uighur minority.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Wonder who wins the recent anti-protest/riot body count: China or Iran?
#2
WUC Leader-Activist RKadeer claims that true the Uighur death toll is bwtn 1000-3000???
* WAFF > MUSLIMS ARE CALLING FOR WAR AGZ CHINA/MUSLIM ANGER AT CHINA BUILDS OVER XINJIANG.
WMF THread Poster > Vee YOUTUBE, argues that TURKEY Should declare WAR AGZ CHINA as CHIN's PLA is presently VERY WEAK [TURKEY's Erdogan had threatened to cut TK exports to PRC]???
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM >RESOURCE -RICH XINKIAN IS CRUCIAL TO CHINA [ Energy + STRATEGIC POSITION ALA 8 COUNTRIES INCLUD AFPAK = ALLY PAKIS, + also BUFFER REGION AGZ NUC-izing ISLAMIST IRAN; + MOTTAKI: WESTERN MEDDLING LED TO IRAN UNREST/MUSLIM IRAN ALSO SAYS THAT XINJIANG VIOLENCE IS CAUSED BY WESTERN FOREIGN FORCES.
SAME > GLOBAL RESEARCH > WASHINGTON PLAYING A DEEPER GAME WITH CHINA???
Six months ago, Fahimuddin was a Pakistani businessman and local councillor. Today he heads a private militia using rocket launchers, guns, grenades and daggers to repel Islamist attacks. Fed up with kidnappings, bombings and rising fears of militancy around Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar, the 40-year-old packed up a prosperous property business and took matters into his own hands. He formed a lashkar, a traditional militia raised by tribesmen in this part of the world for centuries, armed and mobilised temporarily to settle disputes.
It's a dangerous business. Fahimuddin says his men kill assailants. He says he survived two car bombs and escaped a kidnapping attempt, but nothing deters him from staying to flush out Islamist radicals. "How can I leave my family, my village and my children? I will fight all those who attack my village whether they are Taliban, Lashkar-e-Islam or anyone else," he said at his home in Bazed Khel where Peshawar runs into Khyber.
Fahimuddin wears a custom-made black leather jacket over his traditional shalwar khamis -- its pockets loaded with Kalashnikov magazines and grenades. His brother Asif ur-Rehman wears a similarly laden jacket. A dagger sticks out of his waist band. Taking out the blade, Rehman whispers: "I also have four grenades inside my shalwar khamis".
One of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal zones on the Afghan border, Khyber has become increasingly dangerous. Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud is active. Attacks on NATO supply trucks bound for Afghanistan are common. Fifty people were killed in a mosque bombing last March.
Fahimuddin's nemesis is Mangal Bagh, who heads Lashkar-e-Islam, which -- much as the Taliban acts like police -- enforces prayers five times a day and punishes people accused of prostitution, gambling and other vices. "I received a phone call from a Mangal Bagh man who said they will kill me if I don't stop," said Fahimuddin.
Pakistan says government representatives handle allied tribesmen and elders, dishing out money and ammunition to help them in their fight. "The military -- in areas like Bajaur and Dir and part of Khyber -- is encouraging these people to expel these militants and terrorists," spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP. "They are so deep-rooted and widespread it may not be possible for the government and law enforcement agencies to completely get rid of them.
"Lashkars in Bajaur and Upper Dir -- they are pretty successful, they are resisting, expelling all the Taliban," Abbas said.
Fighting between lashkars and militants in the latest government offensive in and around the northwest district Swat has reportedly killed dozens. But pro-government militias are increasingly at risk. Suicide bombers targeting them have killed more than 100 people since last October. "These Lashkars are made to save America and people should not be part of this. TTP (Taliban umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) will hit very hard anyone who participates," Taliban spokesman Mulvi Mohammad Omar told AFP.
But analysts warn unlimited support could be a risky business, much as historic support from spy agencies to Islamists to counter-balance rival India has come back to haunt Pakistan on its western rather than eastern border. They warn that friends of today can turn into enemies of tomorrow. "We have the example of Mulvi Nazir who raised a militia against Uzbeks (in 2007) but later become a warlord," said analyst Mahmood Shah, a former security chief for the tribal areas.
The assassination of Qari Zainnuddin Mehsud on June 23 was considered a blow -- but not the end of efforts to raise tribesmen against Baitullah. "Jihad in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Palestine is right but jihad in Pakistan is wrong. There are no foreign troops here," Turkestan Bhittani, an ally-turned-rival of Baitullah, told AFP claiming, to have thousands of men. He says he is determined to be part of the government's expected offensive against the Taliban chief in South Waziristan. "After they give me the green light, I will attack Baitullah."
[Geo News] The red zone in federal capital has been sealed while the security has been put on high alert over report of influx of a suspected vehicle here on Saturday, Geo news said. Police received information regarding entry of a double cabin vehicle in Islamabad which will likely to be used in terror attacks following which the red zone was sealed while the security was beefed up, police sources said. Heavy police and rangers' contingents are patrolling across federal capital, sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
influx of a suspected vehicle here on Saturday
huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/12/2009 9:10 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Frank, it's one of those things where when you are having computer or network problems and you call tech support and you get some guy with an anglisized name in Pakistan or India...there is often something lost in the translation.
Three Taliban were killed and several others injured during a military operation in Bajaur Agency on Saturday. Security forces pounded the Chinar, Kohi Manogai, Karkanai and Zirat areas in Charmang Valley with artillery, killing the three Taliban. The forces also arrested three Taliban commanders from the Inayat Killay Bazaar during a search operation, destroying their houses with explosives. Two more Taliban were captured while trying to flee the area. Also in Inayat Killay, a Khasadar personnel was injured when a bomb exploded in the bazaar.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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At least six police officials, including a sub-inspector and an assistant sub-inspector, were killed while another policeman was injured near Kund Bangla in Shankiari, a private TV channel reported on Saturday. According to the reports, unidentified men opened fire on a police patrol van, killing the six police officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Police killed one suspected member of the Taliban and seized a truckload of automatic weapons and explosives after a five-hour shootout on Saturday at a madrassa in Dera Ghazi Khan.
Security forces stormed the madrassa after receiving a tip that insurgents loyal to Baitullah Mehsud were hiding out in preparation for an attack, police official Farhat Rasool said. He said the Taliban opened fire on police as they entered, and one insurgent, believed to be Baitullah Mehsud's deputy Abdullah, was killed in the ensuing gunbattle. Two other suspected Taliban were arrested, he added.
"We foiled a major terror plot by seizing bombs, guns, grenades and other weapons," Rasool told The Associated Press. "There is no doubt that these terrorists were associates of Baitullah Mehsud and they were on a mission to carry out attacks." District Police Officer (DPO) Dr Rizwan told APP another two Taliban might have slipped away in the confusion.
This article starring:
Baitullah Mehsud
TTP
Baitullah Mehsuds deputy Abdullah
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Security forces have apprehended another 26 suspected Taliban and recovered arms and ammunition from Swat and Malakand.
According to an update issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations on Saturday, the security forces conducted an operation at Abbasia Hotel, arresting two suspected Taliban and recovering one small machine gun, a rifle, a carbine and three pistols. The security forces also conducted a search operation at Waliabad and apprehended 24 suspects.
Search operations were also conducted in Churkhai, Talang and Sadda Khan. Three soldiers were injured in an exchange of fire with the Taliban near Thana, the statement added. It said an improvised explosive device had exploded near a culvert in Bannu, partially damaging the bridge.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Five people were killed as fighting between warring tribes in Khyber Agency continued for a sixth day on Saturday. A private TV channel quoted its sources as saying that two rival groups were firing at each other in Tirah Valley. It said the total death toll had reached 14, adding more than 40 houses had been destroyed.
Boys will be boys.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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A car bomb exploded near a church as worshippers left Sunday Mass, killing at least four civilians and injuring 18 in one of several attacks on Iraq's beleaguered Christian minority.
The coordinated assault came as the Iraqi military predicted that insurgent attacks, though declining, could continue for a few years, raising the prospect of militant violence after the scheduled withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011.
Three Christians and one Muslim died in the bombing at around 7 p.m. near a church on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, said a police officer who was at the scene. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
An official at al-Kindi hospital confirmed the death toll and said at least 18 people were injured.
Also Sunday, a bomb exploded near a convoy of American personnel that included U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill, though no one was injured.
State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said the bomb exploded as the convoy was traveling through Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq.
Violence is sharply down in the war that began with the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, but militants still carry out lethal attacks on a regular basis, some seemingly aimed at fomenting sectarian tension. The U.S. military completed a withdrawal of combat forces from Iraqi cities to outlying bases last month as part of a plan to let Iraq take the lead on ensuring its own security.
Gen. Babaker B. Shawkat Zebari, the Iraqi army chief of staff, said insurgents once held sway in cities and provinces, but had been whittled down to a few highly dangerous cells that he expected would continue attacks for "a year or two or three." He said the Iraqi military would get help from American forces if needed, but would also rely on assistance from its own citizens.
"To face terrorism, the Iraqi army does not need tanks or armored vehicles, but needs intelligence, fast communication and people's support," he said "The government has to coordinate with the population to get information about the terrorist cells."
The army chief spoke after meeting Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, south of Baghdad. Al-Sistani enjoys massive support among Iraq's majority Shiites, and the Iraqi military sees the backing of religious leaders as vital to its legitimacy and success.
While violence has diminished since 2007, insurgents exact a steady toll with bombs and targeted killings that would amount to a crisis in most other countries.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, gunmen with silencers in a car waited outside the house of Aziz Rizqo Nisan, head of the provincial audit department, and shot him as he drove to work on Sunday morning. His death was confirmed by local police and the national government's media office in Baghdad.
The motive for the killing of Nisan, a Christian, was unclear. Insurgents commonly target Iraqi government officials and security forces. Ethnic and sectarian tension is high in Kirkuk, a disputed city that Kurds want to annex into their northern region despite Arab opposition.
Five Iranian officials held in Iraq for more than two years by U.S. forces returned home Sunday after the U.S. released them under pressure from the Iraqi government.
American officials said a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement required that they hand the men over, but said they fear the Iranians held on suspicion of aiding Shiite militants pose a threat to U.S. troops in Iraq.
The five men were handed over to Iraqi officials Thursday and flew Sunday to Tehran where they were met at the airport by a cheering crowd of onlookers who carried the men on their shoulders and put garlands of flowers around their necks.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in a news conference with the men welcomed them back and praised what he described as their courageous resistance while being held in Iraq by U.S. forces.
The Iranians were detained in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil in January 2007. At the time, U.S. authorities said the men included the operations chief and other members of Iran's elite Quds Force, which is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants.
Iran denied the claim, and has described the men as diplomats who were kidnapped by U.S. forces. Mottaki accused President Barack Obama of continuing the bullying practices of his predecessor. "Iran preserves its right for legal action against the bullying act of the Bush administration in detaining Iranian diplomats, which was unfortunately continued in the new administration," Mottaki was quoted as saying by Iranian television.
The U.S. has long charged that Iran is behind much of the violence in Iraq and has been financing and assisting Shiite militias in attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said earlier that the transfer could help improve dialogue between the U.S. and Iran after a decades-long adversarial relationship. Under the U.S.-Iraqi security pact that went into effect in January, the U.S. must hand over Iraqi and foreign detainees in its custody.
Iran and Iraq have enjoyed better relations after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, who launched an eight-year war against Iran in the early 1980s. Almost all Many current Iraqi leaders were in exile in Iran and still have close ties with Tehran.
The release of the five has been portrayed in Iran as a victory for the Islamic Republic at a time when the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under domestic and international criticism following the disputed June 12 presidential election and the ensuing government crackdown on protests.
Posted by: ed ||
07/12/2009 11:18 ||
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#1
Tradeoff for Saberi
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/12/2009 12:29 Comments ||
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#2
... After they sent our boys and girls back to America in caskets. Rot in hell Barack Hussein Obama. That is a guarantee, boy.
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] At least four people were killed Saturday as a car bomb exploded in an alley in a Shi'ite village in northern Iraq, police said.
Thirty-eight people were wounded and several shops and cars were also damaged in the 3 p.m. explosion in the village of Gugjeli, according to a police officer in Ninevah Province.
Most of the victims were inside their homes when the bomb exploded near the main street of the village, about five kilometers east of the city of Mosul.
Violence remains at low levels in Iraq compared with previous years, but bombings continue to kill scores of people. The attacks have raised concerns as the US military draws down troop numbers and Iraq prepares for parliamentary elections on Jan. 30.
US combat troops in Iraq completed a withdrawal from urban areas to outlying bases at the end of last month, ahead of a planned pullout by all American forces by the end of 2011.
Separately, the US military said an American soldier in Iraq shot and killed a truck driver, an Iraqi citizen, who did not respond to warnings to stop on a highway north of Baghdad.
The shooting occurred at around 2:15 a.m. on Friday when the truck approached a US logistics convoy that had stopped because one of its vehicles had broken down, the military said.
Soldiers flashed vehicle lights and shouted for the truck to stop, but it continued to accelerate, according to the military. A soldier thought the convoy was under attack and fired on the truck, the military said. A teenage passenger in the vehicle, identified by Iraqi officials as a brother of the driver, was not harmed.
Maj. Derrick Cheng, a US military spokesman, described the killing as "tragic" and said the soldier acted in line with terms of a joint US-Iraqi security deal. The soldier was unlikely to face any Iraqi prosecution because the security agreement allows for US jurisdiction over American soldiers in cases when they are on duty and outside their bases.
US and Iraqi forces were jointly investigating the incident, which occurred between the cities of Tikrit and Balad.
An Iraqi police officer and a medic said the truck driver was taken to a hospital in Dujail, where he died of his wounds. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Such incidents were common in the early years of the war in Iraq, deepening hostility toward US forces. Diminishing violence and a more culturally sensitive approach by US forces since 2007 have helped appease large segments of the population and isolated insurgents.
The US military also reported the death of a civilian Iraqi motorist in a head-on collision Thursday night with a US Army Stryker vehicle, the lead vehicle of a US-Iraqi convoy in western Diyala province. The convoy slowed to let the car pass and the Stryker driver signaled with the horn and headlights, but the car did not alter speed or bearing, the military said. At least one soldier in the Stryker was injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] FREED Italian hostage Eugenio Vagni was in hospital early Sunday for medical checks after nearly six months in captivity in the southern Philippines, the military said.
The 62 year-old, known to suffer from hernia, was taken to a military hospital on the southwest island of Jolo shortly after midnight.
Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf handed him over to the vice governor of the province, Nur-Ana Sahidulla, near the town of Indanan, the local military command here said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) aid worker had been known to be ill at various times during captivity and Sahidulla, who has negotiated with the militants over the past months, had previously had medicine delivered to him. 'He's doing remarkably well considering the number of days he spent in captivity,' ICRC spokeswoman Anastasia Isyuk told AFP.
Mr Vagni, 62, was seized by Abu Sayyaf with ICRC colleagues Andreas Notter of Switzerland and Mary Jean Lacaba of the Philippines in January while on a humanitarian mission on Jolo, a hotbed of militant activity.
The gunmen freed his two fellow hostages separately under unexplained circumstances in April.
Ms Isyuk declined to discuss the terms of his release while stressing that the international aid agency did not pay ransom.
Local television station ABS-CBN quoted unnamed sources as saying Vagni would be effectively swapped for the two wives of Abu Sayyaf leader Albader Parad who were arrested along with four other kidnapping suspects in Jolo on Tuesday. 'I can't say anything about that,' Ms Isyuk said.'The Red Cross has said in the past that it will pay no ransom and we maintain that policy,' she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Fred is being held hostage in the hospital? Oh noes!
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.
[Quqnoos] A roadside bomb struck a convoy of Ghazni governor, wounding two of his bodyguards Firday evening, an official say 
China has raised the death toll from ethnic rioting in its far west to 184 and detailed for the first time the ethnicity of those killed, while tension lingered over the city at the centre of the strife. 
Six months ago, Fahimuddin was a Pakistani businessman and local councillor. Today he heads a private militia using rocket launchers, guns, grenades and daggers to repel Islamist attacks. Fed up with kidnappings, bombings and rising fears of militancy around Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar, the 40-year-old packed up a prosperous property business and took matters into his own hands. He formed a lashkar, a traditional militia raised by tribesmen in this part of the world for centuries, armed and mobilised temporarily to settle disputes.
Three Taliban were killed and several others injured during a military operation in Bajaur Agency on Saturday. Security forces pounded the Chinar, Kohi Manogai, Karkanai and Zirat areas in Charmang Valley with artillery, killing the three Taliban. The forces also arrested three Taliban commanders from the Inayat Killay Bazaar during a search operation, destroying their houses with explosives. Two more Taliban were captured while trying to flee the area. Also in Inayat Killay, a Khasadar personnel was injured when a bomb exploded in the bazaar.
At least six police officials, including a sub-inspector and an assistant sub-inspector, were killed while another policeman was injured near Kund Bangla in 
Police killed one suspected member of the Taliban and seized a truckload of automatic weapons and explosives after a five-hour shootout on Saturday at a madrassa in Dera Ghazi Khan. 
Security forces have apprehended another 26 suspected Taliban and recovered arms and ammunition from Swat and Malakand. 
Five people were killed as fighting between warring tribes in Khyber Agency continued for a sixth day on Saturday. A private TV channel quoted its sources as saying that two rival groups were firing at each other in Tirah Valley. It said the total death toll had reached 14, adding more than 40 houses had been destroyed. 
