An official military funeral was held Wednesday morning for a former Palestinian Authority intelligence officer at the Presidential compound in Ramallah, attended by President Mahmoud Abbas.
PA forces fired 21 bullets in the air to commemorate the death of Intelligence Commander General Amin Al-Hindi, who passed away at the age of 70 in Amman on Tuesday. Prediction: Looks like 21 new gimps in Gaza tomorrow...
President Mahmoud Abbas attended the funeral, reciting passages of the Quran in Al-Hindi's honor. Premier Salam Fayyad and Abbas' Secretary-General Al-Tayyab Al-Rahim were also in attendance, as well as family, friends, PLO and Fatah officials, ministers and security force officers. Sounds like a nice day for a rocket attack...
Born in Gaza in 1940, Al-Hindi was infamous for his role in the planning of the slaying of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Bon apetit, worms. Try not to puke...
Following Munich, Al-Hindi was appointed a senior security officer in Fatah, and late president Yasser Arafat made him general security and intelligence service chief when the body was established by the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s. ...and because he had a "purty mouth".
Al-Hindi attempted to resign from his post in 2004 citing the state of chaos and lack of government reforms but was retained until the death of Arafat and replaced when President Mahmoud Abbas took power in 2005. Buh bye. Say hi to Yas for us...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Aren't you supposed to use blanks for a 21-gun salute? Or just an ignorant journalist speaking crap he doesn't know about?
[Tolo News] Unidentified gunnies killed the Border and Tribal Affairs Chief of Zabul, a south-western Afghan province and his wife on Tuesday night
The incident happened in the province's Shahjoy district when unknown gunnies attacked the house of Ata Jan Kajarwal, the Border and Tribal Affairs Chief of Zabul, a Press Release by the media office of the governor of Zabul said.
Mr. Kajarwal's sister was also wounded in the attack, the Press Release adds.
Violence is on the rise, especially in the south, as Afghan and international forces push into areas controlled by the Taliban.
In a recent report, Taliban had stoned to death a 23-year old woman and a 28-year old man on Sunday for having a love affair in Mullah Quli village of Kunduz, a northern Afghan province.
Taliban are also gaining more control in Afghanistan's northern provinces.
Local officials in the northern Samangan province have reported about the increasing Taliban influence in the province.
Taliban have influenced some parts of the province, and we have planned to conduct attacks soon to wipe out Taliban from these areas, Khairullah Anosh, the governor of Samangan, told TOLOnews.
"The Taliban influence is a major threat to the province's security," he added.
Security has deteriorated in Afghanistan's northern provinces, which have witnessed few insurgency attacks in the past few years.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] A road construction worker was killed and one other was wounded in a road side bomb explosion in southern Paktia Province, provincial officials said
Confirming the incident, a spokesperson for governor of Paktia said after a vehicle of the road construction company hit a road side mine in Gardez, the provincial capital, earlier today, one worker of the company was killed and the other was injured.
Taliban and armed anti-government groups use a huge number of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) to target Afghan security forces and foreign troops in the Afghan war.
But, mostly civilians and construction workers are the victims of road side bomb explosions.
Mines form the deadliest threat to foreign forces on their way fighting Afghan insurgency and according to the latest reports by the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society, more than 80 percent of the foreign forces' deaths are caused by IEDs.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Dozens of Afghans rallied Wednesday shouting anti-American slogans for the killing of civilians in NATO operations in eastern Afghanistan
Angry protesters in the eastern Nangarhar province rallied on Wednesday morning for the killing of two civilians and the arrest of three others by foreign forces in the province's Surkhroad district on Tuesday night.
The protesters, many of them locals, were shouting "Down with Obama" and "Down with foreign forces", claiming that the dead people in the incident were local civilians.
These protesters who had blocked the Kabul-Jalalabad highway before the traffic, said one of the civilians was a farmer, and the other one was a shopkeeper, and the three arrested ones are also innocent civilians.
They urged the Afghan government to pursue the issue.
These civilians were killed in operations conducted by foreign forces, Abdul Ghafoor, a spokesman for the Police Chief of Nangarhar, told TOLOnews.
The operations were conducted without coordination with Afghan forces, he added.
ISAF Media Office in the east denied the report saying the operation was conducted in coordination with Afghan forces.
It adds that the coalition forces came under firings from a house when they entered Surkhroad district on Tuesday night, and in cross-firings, two locals whom ISAF indentified as insurgents were killed and three others were arrested.
ISAF media office added that these men were involved in suicide attacks and road-side mine blasts.
Civilian deaths in international forces' operations have sparked controversy between Karzai's administration and the top NATO military officials.
According to a report recently published by the United Nation's Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), civilian casualties have increased by 31 percent in the first six months of 2010.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Any protests over the number of civilians killed by terrorist?
Oh yeah; what would be the point?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
08/19/2010 3:23 Comments ||
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#2
Yeah, they're all civilians...as soon as they die.
#3
They are only echoing Karzai, the "president" of the Heroin Lobby. His theory of counter-insurgency is: work aggressively in non-Pushton areas, while standing around waiting to be sniped by his own kind.
Posted by: Thusolet Prince of the French2994 ||
08/19/2010 17:35 Comments ||
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[Ennahar] The public prosecutor at the court of Bir Mourad Rais, in algiers, has ordered during last week the remand of thirteen people accused of funding and giving assistance and aid to terrorist groups.
According to judicial sources, the accused, in detention for two months, have been heard three times while waiting to be interrogated again.
These are seven owners of pay phones, shops selling mobile phone chips in the regions of Beni Amrane, Bouzegza amal, Lekata Zemouri, Sahel Boubrak and Dellès. The other defendants are from Boumerdes region and its surroundings.
The facts, according to our sources, back to the years 2007, 2009, following a thorough investigation after several serious terrorist operations, in the regions mentioned above. Those involved have been tried at the last criminal session and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The operations were made using chips purchased from these shops or led by the owners themselves. These have enabled chips while using false identities, according to the confessions of the owner of a pay phone in the village of Lekata during his first hearing. He said he was threatened by the buyer who involved with terrorist groups. He would have given 13 chips and could not denounce for fear of reprisals.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Malian national Omar Sid'Ahmed Ould Hamma (aka Omar Sahraoui) was extradited from Nouakchott to Bamako on Monday, ANI reported on Tuesday (August 17th). A Mauritanian court on August 11th upheld Sahraoui's 12-year prison term for the kidnapping of Spanish aid workers Albert Vilalta and Roque Pascual. The hostages remain held in Mali by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Uganda has charged 32 people in connection with the July 11 bomb attacks in Kampala which killed 76 people as they watched the World Cup final, the country's chief prosecutor said Wednesday.
Four Ugandan alleged masterminds were among the 32 who were charged with 76 counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and committing acts of terrorism, the director of public prosecutions Richard Butera told AFP.
The four Ugandan men were paraded before the media last week and described how they had orchestrated the attacks at two separate sites on the evening of football's World Cup final.
Butera said all the defendants were charged with the same offenses and will be tried together in one case.
"We have a very strong case. All of these people will go to trial but we may add others later. The investigations are still ongoing," he said.
Among the defendants are 14 Ugandans, 10 Kenyans, six Somalis, one Rwandan and one Pakistaini, according to a list published Tuesday by the state-controlled New Vision newspaper.
All the suspects were remanded to prison by Chief Magistrate Deo Ssejjemba, who also ordered the media to stop publishing information about the investigation.
Butera estimated that the trial, which will take place in the High Court, should begin within four months.
Last Thursday, the head of Uganda's military intelligence James Mugira produced the four Ugandans for the media and instructed them to describe for journalists their specific roles in the bombings.
However, Uganda's police chief Kale Kayihura said the public confessions were "unprofessional," prompting a series of articles in the local media about a battle to take credit for the arrests among Uganda's various security organs.
Mugira said Uganda has apprehended "all those responsible" for carrying out the attacks, which have been claimed by Somalia's Al-Qaeda inspired Shebab Islamists.
Two of the Ugandans who confessed last week said they had fought alongside Shebab in Somalia but were ordered earlier this year to return to Kampala to plan and execute the July 11 attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Suspected rebels hacked to death three Indian UN peacekeepers in their camp in Kirumba, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the army said Wednesday.
"A group of FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) or Mai-Mai (Congolese militia) penetrated the camp at Kirumba," General Vainqueur Mayala, commander of the 8th military region of the DR Congo army, told AFP. Those are the Hutu crazies who didn't get enough of killing Tutsis in the genocide of the 90s ...
"They did not use firearms, but penknives and machetes, and they killed three Indians and critically injured another three," the general added, reached by telephone from Kinshasa.
The victims all served with the United Nations' Organisation for Stabilisation in Democratic Republic of Congo, abbreviated to MONUSCO.
MONUSCO's spokesman Madnodje Mounoubai could not be immediately reached to confirm the attack.
The mission, earlier known by its French acronym MONUC, has been present in DR Congo since late 1999 and its new mandate to consolidate peace runs until June 30 next year.
Kirumba is around 140 kilometres north of Goma, capital of the volatile Nord-Kivu province.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Google Translate from El Diario of Juarez
A shootout between Mexican Federal (PF) agents and armed suspects last night ended with a toll of three federal agents wounded and two armed suspects wounded and arrested, according to the Mexican daily El Diario.
The shootout began at 1855 hrs on Calle Juvenal Aragon between offices of El Diario and the Holiday Inn where Mexican Federal forces were quartered, when plainclothes agents with the intelligence section of the PF noticed a Jeep Cherokee parked nearby monitoring the location of the federal agents.
Apparently seconds after the discovery, the occupants of the Jeep began to leave the area followed by the three unmarked sedans with the plainclothes PF agents aboard. The shooting between the agents and the suspects started on Avenida Abraham Lincoln and continued on Anillo Envolvente del Pronaf.
When the suspects reached Calle Aragon Juvenal they attempted to reverse on Avenida Paseo Triunfo de la Republic, the location of the agents' quarters.
In the meantime, agents at the hotel, alerted to the pursuit, deployed and started to shoot at the Jeep as soon as it appeared. Tires damaged from the shooting, the Jeep crashed against the curb in front of the hotel and stopped.
As agents on the ground attempted to close and surround the suspects, shooting started between the PF intel unit following on, but the plainclothes officers dropped their weapons shouting identification.
A minor scuffle occurred between federal agents and photographers with El Diario after federal agents seized cameras.
Federal forces in the area have redeployed their forces to deal with possible further involvement of criminal gangs to include snipers.
A total of fifteen individuals were murdered in drug and gang violence in northern Mexican states including three men who were shot and beheaded and the mayor of Santiago, Nuevo Leon, found dead this morning. For a map, click here
An unidentified man was found shot to death in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, say Mexican press reports. The find was made near a vacant lot in the Rinconada de Oriente district.
An unidentified man was found shot to death and immolated aboard a vehicle in an exclusive neighborhood of Juarez Thursday, say Mexican press accounts. The discovery was made in the Champs Elysees district where the victim was found aboard a Chevrolet sedan
An unidentified dead man was found tortured and gagged in Juarez Tuesday night, say Mexican press reports. The victim was found near the intersection of calles Isaac Newton and Prolongacion Insurgentes in the Habitacional Emiliano Zapata district tortured, his head wrapped in tape and his pants pulled down, and his hands and feet bound.
An unidentified man was found shot to death near Chihuahua, Chihuahua, say Mexican press accounts. The victim was found on Km. Marker 12 on the Juarez-Chihuahua highway, hands and feet bound, and shot several times.
A man was found shot to death in a village near Juarez, say Mexican news reports. Ruben Reyes Salazar de 49, was found near the highway that leads through Valles de Juarez. The victim had been shot numerous times with an AK-47 assault rifle. Investigators at the scene found 19 spent cartridge casings.
An unidentified man was shot to death at a residence in Juarez Monday evening, say Mexican news accounts. The attack took place on Calle Armonia in the Nuevo Triunfo district where a number of armed suspects pursued the victim into a home and killed him.
A man was shot to death in Juarez Wednesday afternoon, say Mexican press reports. The attack took place near the intersection of calles Tecnologico and Morelia in front of a butcher's shop where two men riding aboard a Chevrolet pickup truck were attacked by armed suspects. The victim attempted to flee the attack, but instead crashed his vehicle.
A woman was shot to death in Juarez Wednesday afternoon, say Mexican press reports. Araceli Arenas Olivas, 44, was shot near the intersection of calles Benito Juarez and Vicente Guerrero in the Morelos Zaragoza district by armed suspects with 9mm pistols. Witnesses say the men arrived at the location aboard a Ford Explorer.
A man was shot to death in Nogales, Sonora Tuesday night, say Mexican press reports. Ãdgar Fragoso Montante, 30, died from wounds from an AK-47 assault rifle attack at a residence on Calle Simon Bolivar in the Bolivar district. He was shot several times in his torso.
An unidentified man was found shot to death in Apodaca, Nuevo Leon early Wednesday morning, say Mexican press reports. The shooting took place near the intersection of calles Hortensia and Jacaranda in the Hacienda Las Golondrinas district. Apodaca is a community within the larger metropolitan city of Monterrey. The victim was apparently attempting to board his Nissan light truck when he was struck with a bullet in his head.
Three unidentified men were found tortured, shot to death and beheaded in Los Ramones, Nuevo Leon late Tuesday night, say Mexican press accounts. Los Ramones is halfway between Monterrey and Reynosa. The victims were found by a bridge near the highway. Their severed heads were found nearby. A message was found with the victims.
The body of an abducted mayor in Nuevo Leon was found this morning, say Mexican news reports. Mayor of Santiago Edelmiro Leal Cavazos, 40, was abducted by a large group of armed suspects from his home in Santiago, Nuevo Leon two days ago. His body was found on the road leading to Cola de Caballo in Santiago municipality. Reports do not say how he was killed. He was found bandaged and handcuffed.
#2
Gee...what happens when civil governance proves inadequate to the point that constitutional protections are void? The druggies are asking for a Dirty War.
Posted by: Thusolet Prince of the French2994 ||
08/19/2010 17:50 Comments ||
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The plot thickens...
TOKYO Japanese authorities have found radar data showing two small unidentified boats near the Japanese tanker M. Star that was damaged in a suspected attack in the Strait of Hormuz on July 28, transport ministry sources said Tuesday.
The data retrieved from the tankers voyage data recorder showed two small boats changing directions many times and making other suspicious moves, raising the possibility that they may have been involved in the purported attack.
The Japan Transport Safety Board, a body under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and the state-run National Maritime Research Institute are currently analyzing the images left in the M. Stars data recorder, the sources said. The National Police Agencys National Research Institute of Police Science is also checking substances collected from the damaged part of the tanker to see if they were components of an explosive.
The radar data showed the small boats sailing parallel to the tanker, passing it and then turning around. They also showed that at some point, one of the boats disappeared from the radar, a move believed to indicate that it had moved to its blind spot around the tanker, according to the sources.
After the ship was damaged, a manager of the UAEs Fujairah port said something collided with the tanker.
In early August, a militant group linked to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for an attack on the Japanese tanker. Later, the UAEs state-run news agency WAM, citing a UAE coast guard source, reported that local explosives experts found a dent on the starboard side above the waterline and remains of homemade explosives on the hull. Probably the tanker had encountered a terrorist attack from a boat loaded with explosives, the source was quoted as saying in the report.
#2
Damage like this makes no sense when compared with internal damage like this.
According to Japanese newspaper Mainichi, "suggest that there was a powerful blast outside the ship. A lifeboat mounted on its starboard deck was apparently blown away by the force of the blast, while the door of the ship's bridge on its rear starboard side was damaged, exposing insulation materials in the walls and the ceiling inside the room. Another photo shows the window frames of the dining room scattered on tables."
"The area around the door was not wet, and it is unlikely that a wave caused the damage," Mainichi quotes a company official, as saying.
Also notice the deck railing. It is straight up until above the site of damage, then some sections are missing, and others are bowed upward.
Investigators recovered traces of homemade (fertilizer and fuel oil) explosives. An Islamic terror group, the "Abdullah Azzam Brigades" took credit. This outfit is believed to be a name of convenience for several independent terrorist operations. The "Abdullah Azzam Brigades" took credit for recent rocket attacks against the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eliat. But these failed and the rockets fell in nearby Jordan, killing and injuring people.
The attack on the tanker was amateurish, as the explosives were not prepared properly. The fertilizer based explosives are difficult to make correctly (the fertilizer and fuel oil must be mixed in the right proportions, and mixed properly). When the explosives are mixed badly, there is a much smaller explosion, and a very slow going one as well. This sort of thing works well for naval mines or torpedoes, where slow moving explosion creates a more effective pressure wave that does more structural damage to ships. Keep in mind that explosives are simply very fast burning materials. The slowest burning "explosives" are used for rocket motors. Thus for explosions in the air, you want "high (speed) explosives" to punch through metal. Apparently the suicide boater got as close he could to the huge tanker (whose wake makes getting close, especially for a small boat, very difficult), then detonated. All the "low (speed) explosives" could do was dent the hull, while turning the suicide bomber into fish food and his boat into kindling.
[Kyodo: Korea] A North Korean aircraft that appears to be a Soviet-era jet fighter has crashed in a Chinese border area, killing the pilot who may have been attempting to defect to Russia, South Korea"s Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday. The crash happened Tuesday afternoon in Fushun Prefecture in Liaoning Province, Yonhap quoted intelligence sources in China as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I guess one way to cut down on defections is to not fill the fuel tank.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
08/19/2010 2:53 Comments ||
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#2
That's what the Sovs used to do...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 8:38 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A French national wanted in Indonesia over alleged ties with al-Qaeda-linked militants is also on the run from authorities in France, police in Jakarta said Wednesday.
Frederic Jean Salvi - also known as Ali - came to the attention of Indonesian anti-terror police earlier this month after a raid on a bomb factory in West Java, during which they seized a car owned by him..
Police also confiscated explosives and suspected that the vehicle would be used as a car bomb.
"He was involved in a radical organization in France and is also on a wanted list there," Indonesian police chief detective Ito Sumardi said.
"So we'll have a coordination with the French Interpol," he said.
Sumardi said the French national, who is believed to still be at large in Indonesia, is a member of Salafi Jihadi, although he did not give further details on the group.
Police have arrested 102 terror suspects, detaining 66 of them, in a series of nationwide raids after discovering an extremist training camp in Aceh, northern Sumatra island, in February. Top radical Islamist preacher Abu Bakr Bashir was arrested last week for allegedly setting-up and funding the camp which involved al-Qaeda-linked extremists who were plotting a wave of attacks in Jakarta.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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An FBI spokeswoman said Tuesday that the white powder mailed to Republican congressional candidate Robert Hurt poses "no danger to the public." The occasional mailings of white powder since November 2001 have turned out to be talcum powder, flour, or what have you. I'm hoping the original mailer managed to kill him/her/itself.
But the spokeswoman stopped short of actually naming the substance that Hurt received in an envelope at his Chatham office Friday. Probably not powdered sugar...
"This is an ongoing investigation; I can't talk about it at all," FBI media representative Dee Rybiski said Tuesday. "I can say no more!"
Rybiski said the agency would not be immediately releasing the results of the tests or the status of the investigation. "We're going to wait until Attention Span Deficit Syndrome kicks in and nobody remembers it...
The investigation into a white powder mailed to Hurt has been turned over to the FBI. If I was a terrorist intent on distributing actual anthrax or what have you I'd dye my powder brown and sprinkle it on home-baked cookies. But since the intent is to cause people to holler "Oh, my!" and call the cops and get decontaminated the guys who're actually doing this crap don't try to disguise it.
As local, state and federal law enforcement and emergency management teams responded to the senator's office Friday, Hurt and staff members who were exposed to the powder went through a decontamination process, according to Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"the FBI named The Usual Suspect Dr. Steven Hatfill as a person of interest"
/only slightly snarky
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/19/2010 10:18 Comments ||
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#2
An FBI spokeswoman said Tuesday that the white powder mailed to Republican congressional candidate Robert Hurt poses "no danger to the public."
[Dawn] The police claimed on Wednesday that they had arrested two suspected members of the proscribed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi who were allegedly involved in the recent string of sectarian killings, including the assassination of Sindh legislator Syed Raza Haider, who was targeted in a mosque on Aug 2.
Speaking at a press conference, Inspector-General of the Sindh police Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak said that apart from the killing of the MPA, the suspects were involved in the killing of two brothers -- Syed Shahzad Raza and Syed Asif Raza -- Agha Abid Shirazee, Dr Syed Abbas Haider and Junaid Shakir.
The suspects have killed 11 persons in the city during the first six months of the year.
The arrests were carried out in Orangi Town late on Tuesday night by a team of the CID police.
Identifying the two suspects as Waseem alias Barudi and Abdullah alias Taimoor, the IG said Waseem earlier lived in Orangi Town before relocating to F.B Area. He had taken his BSc examination, whose results have not yet been declared. The suspect was arrested in 2001 in eight criminal cases but was released in 2008. He again got actively involved with the sectarian group.
The family of Abdullah alias Taimoor was from Sialkot, but he was born and brought up in Karachi.
He got his early education in Landhi, where he was working as a tailor. In 2004, he had a dispute with some neighbours and subsequently joined the LJ and became its active member, the provincial police chief said.
Taimoor had also gone to Afghanistan to get training. He was arrested in Sukkur in 2005 for being in possession of two suicide vests. However, he was released from jail in 2008, the IG said.
The other associates of the suspects are Qasim Rashid, Ayaz Abid and Akhlaq. Police have seized an AK-47 rifle, two pistols and explosives from the suspects.
Mr Khattak said the two belonged to the Shakil Burmee and Asif Chhotu groups of the banned outfit.
Pointing to the forensic evidence, the provincial police chief said irrefutable forensic evidence had been collected in some of these cases of sectarian killing.
A video clip showing the suspects' confessional statements was played at the press conference. Except for the eyes, the suspects' faces were covered in the video.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Islamist militants attacked police posts in Pakistan's northwest and killed two civilians active in an anti-Taliban militia, challenging a security establishment straining under a national flooding disaster, police said Wednesday.
The attacks came as the U.N. said an estimated 4.6 million flood victims have yet to get any shelter, despite aid workers' attempts to distribute tents. The floods have submerged tens of thousands of villages, killed around 1,500 people and affected 20 million others, authorities say.
A group of militants first killed two members of a militia in the Adezai area of Peshawar as they headed to pray at a mosque late Tuesday, said Liaqat Ali Khan, Peshawar police chief.
In the hours after, dozens of militants from the Khyber tribal region, which lies near Peshawar and along the Afghan border, attacked police posts in the Sarband area of Peshawar. The two sides exchanged fire for about an hour before the militants retreated to Khyber, Khan said.
He said several militants were killed, but there were no police casualties.
The clashes suggest Islamist insurgents are not abandoning their campaign against the state despite the flooding that began three weeks ago. In fact, they may be taking advantage of the government's weak and distracted status.
"As the police force is busy in rescue and relief work for flood affectees, militants tried to take advantage of the situation to attack Peshawar, but the police force was fully alert and vigilant," Khan said.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was headed to Russia on Wednesday for a regional summit. He was expected to stay only a few hours before returning to his deluged country. An earlier multi-day trip to Europe just as the disaster was unfolding severely damaged Zardari's already poor reputation.
The U.N. appealed last week for $459 million for immediate relief efforts and has received 40 percent of that so far, said U.N. spokesman Maurizio Giuliano. Another $43 million has been pledged.
Aid groups have complained that the response has been too slow and not generous enough, and the U.N. warned that many victims have yet to receive any help. That includes around 4.6 million in eastern Punjab and southern Sindh provinces who still need shelter, Giuliano said Wednesday.
The Pakistani Taliban have urged citizens to reject any foreign aid, saying it will only be stolen by the political elite in the impoverished nation of 175 million.
The military, meanwhile, has some 60,000 troops dealing with flood relief. Many of those soldiers would normally would be battling insurgents or holding territory they had already cleared.
U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson said Tuesday that it was too soon to understand what impact the disaster would have on the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan, but that it was a concern for Washington. The U.S. has pushed Pakistan to eliminate militant hideouts it fears are being used as rest stops for insurgents engaged in the war in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TTP
#1
I don't want to seem callous but these are the guys that spent billions on nuclear weapons and unleashed the Khan network to arm Nork and Iran with nuclear weapons. Maybe those billions would have been better spent on infrastructure; like maybe a dam or two.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
08/19/2010 2:57 Comments ||
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#2
Let them eat mud.
Posted by: Thusolet Prince of the French2994 ||
08/19/2010 17:36 Comments ||
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They have to keep the home-front boiling so they can launch attacks into Afghanistan. From the Daily Times of Pakistan:
PESHAWAR: Dozens of terrorists attacked a mosque and a police checkpoint in Peshawar, killing two anti-Taliban fighters, police said on Wednesday. In the first attack, 10 terrorists from Lashkar-e-Islam wearing the official tee-shirts raided a holy mosque on Tuesday in Adezai village, on the outskirts of Peshawar, killing two militiamen while they were praying. An hour later, about 100 insurgents from the group fired on a police post in Sarband village, on the western edge of Peshawar, leading to a 40-minute gunfight but no injuries were reported. The two sides exchanged fire for about an hour before the terrorists retreated to Khyber, said Liaquat Ali Khan, the Peshawar police chief. Several militants were killed, but there were no police casualties, he added. They were Mangal Baghs people, I SAW the official tee-shirts with my OWN EYES! Muhammad Karim Khan, a senior police official, told AFP. He said the group came from Khyber Agency before fleeing the scene of both attacks. Fahimuddin, head of the anti-Taliban militia in Adezai village, confirmed the attacks. agencies
[Asharq al-Aswat] A senior Iraqi security source has confirmed that the terrorist "Abu Deraa" has returned to Baghdad from Iran. Abu Deraa whose real name is Ismail al-Lami and who is known as the "Shiite Zarqawi" is wanted by the Iraqi authorities and the US forces, and according to the source, "may be behind the majority of explosions that have taken place recently in Baghdad and other cities."
The high-level security source who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity via telephone from Baghdad yesterday said that Abu Deraa "fled to Iran in late 2008 after being responsible for many of the terrorist operations targeting Sunnis in Iraq since 2004." The security source confirmed that "our strategic information indicates that he stayed in the city of Qom and that he received further training at the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to carry out terrorist attacks against the Iraqi and US forces, and Sunni civilians."
Abu Deraa was part of the Mahdi Army, who facilitated his 2004 trip to Iran under the pretext that he wanted to visit the holy sites there. However Abu Deraa received military training in Iran, and has returned to assume the position of commander of the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq [a Shiite insurgent group and offshoot of the Mahdi Army] in Sector 74 of Sadr City.
Ismail al-Lami was brought up in one of the poor districts of Sadr City, he did not excel academically and so helped his father sell fish in the city's al-Maridi market before volunteering to join the Iraqi army where he reached the rank of a non-commissioned officer. However al-Lami deserted the army in 2000, and there was no significant news of him until following the US invasion of Baghdad where he -- along with a group of accomplices -- was believed to be behind a number of thefts and robberies at commercial, governmental, and non-governmental buildings. He later began to target and kill former Baathists and Iraqi army officers, quickly becoming commander of a brigade of the Mahdi Army, vowing to "clear Baghdad of Sunnis."
The source denied the reports that Abu Deraa had been killed in November 2006 by US forces, telling Asharq Al-Awsat that "at the time, the US forces had surrounded Abu Deraa in one of the districts of Sadr City but they were unable to capture or kill him." The security source also revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that "Abu Deraa specializes in killing people using an electrical drill, and at the time there were a lot of innocent people whose bodies were discovered with head injuries caused by an electric drill."
The source also said that the false reports of Abu Deraa's death were rejected by the US forces in mid-November 2008 when "the commander of US battalion that was stationed in Sadr City announced that two of the most prominent members of the Mahdi Army, and they are Abu Deraa and Sheikh Baqir, had left Iraq, but were running the violence in the city through their top aides by forming special groups that were not loyal to leaders of the Sadrist trend, Moqtada al-Sadr. The Aswat al-Iraq news agency quoted the US commander as saying "the most dangerous commanders of the Mahdi Army, Abu Deraa and Sheikh Baqir, formed these special groups that receive no orders from any Iraqi figure."
The high ranking security source also informed Asharq Al-Awsat that "Abu Deraa, who is currently present in Sadr City, which is information that some security apparatus are aware of, enjoys freedom of movement and action, and he is today a commander in the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq group that the government had negotiated with and released its leadership in order to win its support prior to the recent elections."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Barack Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there.
pass on a "Thanks" to him from me and my family. we appreciate his service.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
08/19/2010 17:08 Comments ||
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#9
I'm happy for you Frank! That is great news.
With regard to giving zero any credit here, the date was signed and ordered by Bush before he left office. This timeline that MSNBC drools about Zero being the peacemaker was actually Bush's timeline and zero is just following Bush's lead.
With that said I am glad the guys are headed home. God bless each one.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/19/2010 17:10 Comments ||
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#10
the troops KNOW who pushed the surge and came out victorious against all-out opposition from Obama, Harry Reid, the MFM, et al. W is still a hero to them. Our C-in-C? Not so much. Thank you for your kind comments - I'll pass them along, and yes, I am sooooo glad he's coming home
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/19/2010 18:55 Comments ||
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#11
I also want to say "thank you and God Bless" to those who served prior to my son's deployment. They and their families (several here on the Burg)paid the blood and pain price during the toughest times so that my son's year there was relatively sane.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/19/2010 19:01 Comments ||
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#12
Glad he's coming home, Frank. I'll be glad when they all come home.
#17
Frank G -- give him a hug from a lit'l old lady deep in the heart of Texas -- wish it could be W meeting him. Welcome home, young man -- job well done.
#18
Frank G -- give him a hug from a lit'l old lady deep in the heart of Texas -- wish it could be W meeting him. Welcome home, young man -- job well done.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Lebanon's military court on Wednesday charged a colonel with spying for Israel, a judicial source said, bringing to four the number of active duty soldiers arrested on charges of espionage.
"Judge Sakr Sakr charged Colonel Antoine Abu Jaoudeh with spying for the (Israeli) enemy, meeting with Israeli Mossad agents abroad and providing them with information on the resistance (Hezbollah) and army in exchange for money from 2006 until his arrest" earlier this month, the source told AFP.
More than 100 people have been arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel since April 2009, including members of the security forces and telecom employees.
Many of the charge sheets accuse the suspects of having helped Israel identify targets during its devastating 2006 war with Shiite militant Hezbollah.
The most high-profile arrest came earlier this month, when Fayez Karam, a former army general and top member of a Christian party allied with Hezbollah, was charged with espionage and providing the Jewish state with information on its arch-foe Hezbollah.
Five Lebanese have been sentenced to death for spying for the Mossad so far, including two who were handed the death sentence Tuesday.
Lebanon and Israel remain technically in a state of war, and convicted spies face life in prison with hard labor or the death penalty if found guilty of contributing to Lebanese loss of life.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Seems like you're a nobody in Lebanon unless you're spying for Israel...
#2
I wonder if he was set up by Israel because of Hezbullies support, or if this is just Arab paranoia with the modern equivalent of a Salem witch hunt.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Fatah al-Islam, an Al-Qaeda-inspired group that fought a devastating battle with the Lebanese army in 2007, has confirmed the death of two of its leaders, the SITE monitoring service said on Wednesday.
The group confirmed the "martyrdom of the mujahid (holy warrior) sheikh, the emir (leader) of Fatah al-Islam, Abu Muhammad Awad, and the mujahid commander and foreign brother, Abu Bakr Mubarak," a SITE translation of a statement posted on jihadist forums said.
"They were martyred at the hands of the intelligence services of the Lebanese state, while they were on their way to the state of glory, the Islamic State of Iraq," the statement said.
The Islamic State of Iraq is Al-Qaeda's front organisation in that country.
The Lebanese army said the two were killed on Saturday, giving their names as Abdul Rahman Awad and Abu Bakr.
"Abdul Rahman Awad, one of the key leaders of Fatah al-Islam," was killed along with another militant known as Abu Bakr during clashes in the eastern Bekaa Valley region, a military spokesman told AFP.
Awad, one of the most wanted Islamists in Lebanon, opened fire at troops along with his comrade and the soldiers responded, killing them, the spokesman said.
The clash broke out in the town of Chtaura and both men were travelling on false identities, the army said.
In 2007, Fatah al-Islam seized the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. In an army siege that raged for more than three months, the camp was levelled and 400 people killed, including 168 soldiers.
Lebanese judicial authorities accuse Awad of having incited militants to carry out attacks two years ago in the port city of Tripoli, near the camp, that killed 21 people, including 13 soldiers.
A judicial source said Abu Bakr was Awad's key deputy who provided military training to members of Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy group said to be inspired by Al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/19/2010 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
An official military funeral was held Wednesday morning for a former Palestinian Authority intelligence officer at the Presidential compound in Ramallah, attended by President Mahmoud Abbas. 
[Tolo News] Dozens of Afghans rallied Wednesday shouting anti-American slogans for the killing of civilians in NATO operations in eastern Afghanistan
[Al Arabiya Latest] A French national wanted in Indonesia over alleged ties with al-Qaeda-linked militants is also on the run from authorities in France, police in Jakarta said Wednesday.
An FBI spokeswoman said Tuesday that the white powder mailed to Republican congressional candidate Robert Hurt poses "no danger to the public." 
Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Barack Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Fatah al-Islam, an Al-Qaeda-inspired group that fought a devastating battle with the Lebanese army in 2007, has confirmed the death of two of its leaders, the SITE monitoring service said on Wednesday.
