Saudi security forces arrested two Muslim extremists suspected of involvement in the slaying of a police officer in Mecca last week, reports said Monday. The Daily al-Watan said the two suspects were rounded up in Taif in western Saudi Arabia because they of their association with Mustafa Thabiti, one of the two killers of Col. Mubarak Sawwat. The paper said the two men are known to be Muslim extremists and played a role in turning Thabiti into a religious fanatic. Investigation showed the suspects held several meeting with Thabiti and Kamal Fauda, who were both killed in a clash with police last week, a few days after they assassinated Sawwat outside his home in Mecca.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/27/2005 08:28 ||
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President Alvaro Uribe flew to southwest Colombia to oversee a counterattack against leftist rebels on Sunday, a day after 25 soldiers were killed in attacks across the country that shattered hopes that the insurgents were nearing defeat. More than 1,000 troops backed by helicopter gunships hunted down several hundred rebels believed to be heading for the nearby Ecuador border to seek refuge, the army said. "The murder of our soldiers pains us greatly," Uribe said after meeting with military commanders in Puerto Asis, some 330 miles southwest of Bogota. "But to make concessions to terrorism or to bow to terrorism undermines democracy," he said. Uribe added that he intends to discuss the situation along the border with Ecuadorean authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2005 00:00 ||
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In a sign of the growing instability in the Caucasus region of Russia, four bombs exploded in the southern republic of Dagestan during the weekend.
Two of the bombs on Saturday wounded six police officers in the regional capital, Makhachkala, and one derailed a cargo train, wounding two men. The fourth blast occurred outside a school in Khasavyurt.
No one immediately claimed responsibility, and it was not clear who was behind the blasts.
Another explosion, the fifth during the weekend, hit a police vehicle Sunday, wounding a police officer, officials told The Associated Press in Makhachkala. The explosion occurred shortly after midnight, according to Marina Rasulova, a spokeswoman for the police.
Dagestan, an autonomous Russian republic on the Caspian Sea, is on Chechnya's eastern border and has been both a source of fighters in the long-simmering war there and an area where Chechens have sought refuge.
It has had its own internal divisions and unrest as well, and bombings, arrests, skirmishes and the discovery of weapons caches or explosives have been regular occurrences there this year. In May, a senior Dagestan government official was killed in an explosion. The victim was Zagir Arukhov, the information and nationalities minister, who was killed as he entered the stairway of his apartment building in Makhachkala.
The first two of the bombs during the weekend showed signs of tactical sophistication, and greater harm was avoided in the third explosion because it was a cargo train, not a passenger train, that detonated a freshly laid explosive.
The first bomb exploded at 12:40 a.m. in Makhachkala. The explosion disabled a police vehicle and wounded two police sergeants, according to RIA Dagestan, a regional news agency.
Interfax, a Russian news agency, reported that the men had been spared more serious injury because they had been driving with flak jackets draped over the vehicle's side windows - a sign of just how dangerous police officers believe patrols in Dagestan to be.
The first blast was apparently used as bait, which is a tactic often used by fighters in Chechnya. Fifteen minutes after the explosion, as investigators were examining the scene, a second hidden bomb detonated about 35 meters, or 115 feet, from the first, wounding four senior police officers.
An hour later, at 1:55 a.m. a powerful bomb placed on the tracks between Kurush and Suvak exploded. It was detonated by a pressure switch that was set off as the train passed over it.
The bomb derailed the locomotive and four flatcars, injuring the engine driver and a crew member, according to Akhmed Magomayev, the chief of staff of the local transportation police, RIA Dagestan reported. More than 100 meters of the rail was damaged, and train service in the republic was delayed throughout the day.
The explosion in Khasavyurt damaged the school but wounded no one, the Russian news agencies reported.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/27/2005 10:02 ||
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On CNBC, Ron Insana was just interviewing a guy who was on a trading floor, "Al Kassian" of UBS Street Services, I think.
Kassian said that the street would be cautious for a period, because there is a "three-and-a-half week window" from the release of an al-Qaeda videotape and a posible attack, and since their "number 2" recently released one, we've got until the July 4th weekend to see it through. He talked about the "three-and-a-half week window" as if it were common knowledge.
#8
Raw meat.
Individuals from what 10 countries met in Turkey?
AQ - in SA?
AQ - in Egypt?
AQ - pakiwakiland?
AQ - Puntland
AQ - in Upper Nigeria
AQ - in Yemen
AQ - in Jordan
AQ - in Sudan
AQ - in Chechnya
AQ - in a London Mosque with hooked hands
#12
the american nazis are oozing out of that half way house again. Demerits will be issued! your gonna get that keyboard yanked galty.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/27/2005 20:18 Comments ||
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#13
..Can somebody please clarify 'Say Doom' for me? I love it, but evidently I missed the context somewhere.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/27/2005 21:19 Comments ||
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#14
we're all doomed Mike... 'Say Doom' according to the MSM Armageddon,
climate Armageddon, nuclear Armageddon, radiation Armageddon, floride in the water, tri-glycerides, my mother, my sister, my ex-wife SAY DOOMED!
Posted by: Mr. hen pecked ||
06/27/2005 21:47 Comments ||
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#15
"SAY DOOM" was a tag line a recent visitor used in pretty much any thread. I think maybe he meant say "BOOM" like a nuclear warhead dropping. But then again, maybe not. I can't remember the critter's name, but I'd recognize the basic style again when I see it.
#16
With GLOBAL ANTI-WAR MOVEMENTS SUPP WAR AND TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICA, and Russia ready to attack overseas alleged terror bases, etal, the worldwide Anti-Dubya/GOP, Anti-USA, anti-Western, anti-DemoCapitalism, anti-Male and anti-US DemoLeft Leftie coalition to elect Hillary gotsit on. Dubya, the Canucks, and Taiwan just keep a diligent eye on your arses - the FAILED LEFIES WANT POWER, ABSOLUTE UNDENIABLE AND UNCONDITIONAL, NOT COMPROMISE OR REFORMS aka, amongt other things, AS GETTING EVERYTHING FOR NOTHING OR AT SOMEONE ELSE'S EXPENSE - you know, Left-beloved blue collar or Protestant work ethics, sub aka "BARBARIAN RULE" or "RULE BY THE SWORD"!?
#17
eLarson and Mr. hen pecked -
Thank you, gentlemen! For some reason now I keep hearing Buffalo Bob Smith say, "Hey Kids - SAY DOOM!!" Beats me why, but it's no loopier than anything else.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/27/2005 23:34 Comments ||
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COMMUNIST insurgents raided a police station in southern Philippines and seized at least 30 weapons before escaping on a convoy of vehicles, authorities said. The raid, officials said, occurred late Sunday in Magpet town in North Cotabato after several armed members of the New People's Army (NPA) who disguised themseles as lawmen went to the police station purportedly to surrender a man, who was in handcuffs.
Inside the police station, the raiders drew their guns and herded the policemen who were all apparently caught unaware, and then ransacked their arsenal and fled, officials said.
"Security forces are pursuing the raiders. It was the first time the NPA raided my province," North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Pinol said by phone from Magpet town. Radio reports said Monday the gunmen also seized a village leader Silverio Virar, whose his fate remains unknown.
The NPA, armed wing of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NDF), is fighting the goernment the past three decades to install a Maoist state in the country. Rebel leaders suspended peace talks in 2002 with the Filipino government after the United States listed the CPP-NDF and the NPA as foreign terrorist organizations on the recommendation of the Philippine government. The rebels were demanding that the government ask Washington to lift the terror tag. Aside from the United States, the European Union also blacklisted the three groups.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/27/2005 14:24 ||
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#1
several armed members of the New People's Army (NPA) who disguised themseles as lawmen went to the police station purportedly to surrender a man, who was in handcuffs.
Ah, the ol' Chewbacca Offense. Prisoner transfer to Cellblock 1138.
A Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebel was captured yesterday by government troops in a raid in a southern Philippine city, a military spokesman said. Lieutenant Colonel Buenaventura Pascual said Hajan Maldam was captured in a predawn raid in Zamboanga City, 875km south of Manila.
Pascual said Maldam was among the group of Abu Sayyaf rebels who kidnapped Catholic priest Cirilo Nacorda and 16 public school teachers in the nearby province of Basilan on June 8, 1994. âThe suspect was positively identified by two kidnap victims,â he said. âHe is undergoing interrogation.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/27/2005 10:08 ||
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#1
don't release him, Gloria
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/27/2005 22:41 Comments ||
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#7
I think the Crusader War College is an ideal venue. Vidalia Georgia is central to everything worth being central too, excepting Ludawici of couse. Let's try spring or late fall tho....
#15
Mojo, I'm in Marin and I know I could get a few others as well. Just tonight I will join a fellow occasional Rantburger, we will go to an eatery in Mill Valley and will discuss politics and the war in loud tones so as to annoy the locals. It is quite fun.
#17
6:30 at what used to be Avenue Grill, Mudbugs, etc. Now it is called Barrell 44 or something like that. No laptops planned, heck no Marin Ratapalooza planned until 5 minutes ago.
#18
I just thought we might want to trade stories back and forth. Would be cool if we could Rantapoloza together. I also have unlimited weekend minutes on my cell phone so we could conference call. I wonder if they will hate me if I wear my "W is for Winners" t-shirt? Heck we need a Rantburger TShirt!
#19
Sadly, July 9th is the Annual Deacon Blues Beer Drink, Swim, and Rib Fest. Maybe some other time. This is the sign 2 miles from the Pork Palace.
Do I live in a great place or what!
I'm in Wheaton near trains so anywhere in Chicago land would be OK.
Taking some buddies from out of town to the 3rd's fireworks than the 4th fireworks at my house. (I'm 2 blocks from the DuPage County launch site...)
Of course from about the 4th through the 10th will be madly picking apricots off my tree and figuring out what to do will about 35 bushels of them...
#25
CS, yes, I'm almost positive the last name on the place was Cascade B&G. There are some motels along 101 that should be reasonable. Never stayed in any so I'm not sure. I sent you an e-mail. Check that so we don't use Fred's bandwidth.
#27
I go between Davis and Mountain View (95616 and 94041, respectively), so any place BUT Marin is good, as I wouldn't want to run into Boxer in her silver BMer (or would I? hmm....).
Posted by: Armchair in Sin ||
06/27/2005 18:25 Comments ||
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#28
Mmmm...apricots. Just bought some scrawny ones at the grocers...
#29
Part of the fun is going to the belly of the beast and poking it in the eye. Davis is just as much full of LLL as Marin. Running into Boxer, Polosi, Lee, etc would be BONUS points as far as I am concerned.
#31
Seafarious
2 photos in email
only ones currently orange are wormy ones...
As to DuPage fireworks... I normally get the OFF on and walk to blks down to the jail parking lot and plunk myself down - best seats around. (Wife usually watches from the yard.)
BAGHDAD, June 27 (UPI) -- Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Solagh said Monday more than 1,000 gunmen rounded up in recent security operations will stand trial next week. Solagh said the president of the Higher Judicial Council, Midhat Mahmoud, has informed him that the trials will kick off next week. The interior ministry said earlier this month more than 1,300 terror suspects, including Iraqis and Arab nationals, have been rounded up in security operations carried out by 40,000 police and troops to curb mounting violence.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/27/2005 11:22 ||
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#1
"Guilty."
*bang*
"Call the next case."
Posted by: Matt ||
06/27/2005 11:45 Comments ||
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#2
feed them to a wood-chipper, that would put a dent into their violence.
#5
And Saddam Hussein met the IST judge today, and preliminary questioning will begin in a couple of weeks. He won't co-operate. Tariq Aziz already sandbagged him on the Kurd killings.
The Algerian authorities have arrested six Yemeni students they suspect of belonging to al-Qaeda and of having formed an al-Qaeda cell in the city of Annaba, eastern Algeria, the al-Khabar daily reported. The arrests, which security forces made over the past few days, followed phone taps of calls the men made on their line to Peshawar in Pakistan, as well as to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
The Yemeni arrests follow a recent swoop in Annaba in which police arrested six Tunisians seeking to join the radical Algerian terror formation Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). In early June, Algerian police arrested five men suspected of belonging to a GSPC cell they believe masterminded a series of ambush attacks against Algerian military convoys and police road blocks in May.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/27/2005 10:35 ||
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#1
I love a dirty war. I was in El Salvador and Chile when our Strong Men were doing it. And I liked what I saw. I would feed GPSC terrorists to pigs, and make their captive jihadis live off the flesh.
A clean war is a lost war. Values are like pennies: who wants them?
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/27/2005 19:34 Comments ||
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#4
feed GPSC terrorists to pigs, and make their captive jihadis live off the flesh.
I must be thinking more slowly than usual after spending the day driving back from visiting family. The above makes no sense to me. The GSPC keep pet jihadis?
KABUL - US-led forces in southern Afghanistan shot dead a gun-wielding suspected militant as he sped towards a checkpoint on a motorcycle, a military statement said on Monday. The incident took place on Sunday east of Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, some 340 kilometers (212 miles) south of Kabul. Zabul is believed to be a hotbed of rebels linked to the ousted Taleban regime. âThe man approached the checkpoint on a motorcycle at a high rate of speed and ignored verbal warnings to stop,â the US military statement said. âAs he drew closer he brandished an AK-47 assault rifle.
There are a number of joint Afghan and US-led checkpoints on the highway connecting Kabul with the main southern town of Kandahar and which travels through troubled Zabul province. âWe routinely stop and search vehicles for munitions, weapons and drugs to ensure the safety of Afghans and to prevent terrorist attacks,â said US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jerry OâHara. On June 13 four US soldiers were wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on an American convoy near Kandahar.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/27/2005 10:13 ||
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#1
he proby had the spirt-turban⢠on and figured he was immune.
Mauritania's authorities have seized documents they say were used by Islamic militants in the West African nation to "justify terrorism" and which also give practical tips on staging attacks. The interior minister of the former French colony, where an Islamic fundamentalist group allied to al Qaeda killed 15 soldiers this month, displayed the documents during a news conference on Friday. The papers were seized by security services from members of the Mauritanian arm of the Algerian militant Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), the minister said. "These documents justify terrorism and also give practical instructions on undertaking a certain number of terrorist acts," Interior Minister Lemrabott Sidi Mahmoud Ould Cheik Ahmed said.
Mauretanians all seem to have really long names — no "Bobs" or "Herbs" to be found. And they're all Ould. The place must be like an ould folks' home...
"Some (of the documents) relate to blowing up cars, how to make fatal poisons, suicide missions, communication methods, the people to be targeted, embassies, strategic locations, maps of certain neighbouring countries," he said.
Brief, sternly suppressed vision of bent little ould men, their rheumy eyes rolling with fanaticism, their turbans tending to slide off their slick, hairless domes, blowing up really ould cars...
Prime Minister Sghair Ould Mbareck was among those listed as potential targets, the minister added.
"Yeah! We gotta take out the prime minister! He's too ould for the job!"
"Eh? What's that, sonny?"
Authorities in Mauritania, which straddles black and Arab Africa and hopes to begin pumping oil this year, have said the GSPC is recruiting Mauritanians to fight at home and abroad.
"A broad? I'd love a broad! It's been years since I had one! 'Course, I'm not sure what I'd do with her..."
A deputy head of the GSPC, Amari Saifi, was sentenced to life in prison in Algeria on Saturday after a court found him guilty in absentia of helping to create a terrorist group. Critics say Mauritania is taking advantage of the U.S.-led "war on terror" to crack down on Islamic opponents.
They always say that, unless the Islamists actually take over and kill everybody who doesn't agree with them, and then they say that the U.S. should have stopped it, or that it's our fault they're the way they are...
Although an Islamic Republic, Mauritania's laws ban any party based solely on religion. The country is paradoxically one of the most repressive states in the region towards Islamists, analysts say.
The writer's missed the difference between "Islamic" and "Islamist." He thinks the two are interchangeable...
In recent months, Mauritanian authorities have arrested around 50 suspected Islamists, saying they had links to the GSPC, listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation. Authorities said the GSPC was behind an attack on a remote military post this month, in which 15 soldiers were killed.
So the crackdown's got their domestic Islamists on the run and they had to import some from Algeria. What's that say about the gummint's tactics?... Anyone?... Bueller?
There have been three coup attempts in Mauritania since June 2003. Some of the dissident soldiers wanted for the bids to oust President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya are still at large. Many Arabs are angry that Taya, who seized power in a 1984 coup, shifted support from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to the United States and Israel.
... thereby tipping the world balance of power. Is there anything that many Arabs aren't angry about?
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/27/2005 10:16 ||
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The writer's missed the difference between "Islamic" and "Islamist." He thinks the two are interchangeable
"Islamic"= beware, it's nuts.
"Islamist."= beware, they're extremely dangerous coconuts!
"A broad? I'd love a broad! It's been years since I had one! 'Course, I'm not sure what I'd do with her..."
in that case let her do you..persistence counts,
so what if she calls you a pest.
One of Algeriaâs top Islamic rebels, wanted in Germany for the kidnap of 32 European tourists in the desert in 2003, was sentenced to life in prison in his absence yesterday for helping to create a terrorist group. Amari Saifi, deputy head of the Al-Qaeda-aligned Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), was convicted in a court in Algiers of creating an armed terrorist group and spreading terror among Algeriaâs population.
In the same trial, three Algerians were acquitted and two received three years in prison, the judge said. Saifi, a former paratrooper, was tried in his absence as the case was brought to the court before his extradition to Algeria last October. He is in custody at an undisclosed location and under interrogation for other terrorism-related charges.
He is wanted in Germany in the kidnapping of 32 European tourists in the Algerian Sahara desert, including several German nationals. The authorities are preparing several charges against Saifi, including kidnappings and numerous killings of soldiers and civilians spanning over a decade.
Experts say Saifi built up a base in the inhospitable Sahara desert, partly through the control of contraband. He is also believed to have recruited followers in neighboring countries.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/27/2005 10:15 ||
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was sentenced to life in prison in his absence yesterday
He is in custody at an undisclosed location
no doubt some Italian Puke judge will be demanding his release...whatever happened to our good wetworks crews? Jeebus! Sublet to the Bulgarians. Take the Red judges at random and these guys at 100%
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/27/2005 23:39 Comments ||
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LAHORE, Pakistan - Pakistan released 17 men on Monday who had been freed from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba only to be detained on their return home, an official said. The men returned to Pakistan nine months ago following detention at the US facility for terror suspects, said Tahir Ashrafi, a religious affairs adviser for the government in the eastern Punjab province.
âThese are people who have been declared innocent by America. Our (intelligence) agencies have thoroughly interrogated them,â Ashrafi told reporters outside the Kot Lakhpat jail. âThey have not been found to be involved in any kind of terrorist activity.â He said the men had âfurnished surety bonds that they will maintain good behavior and will not be involved in any anti-state activities.â
Hundreds of Pakistanis went to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taleban militia against the United States. After the US military operation ousted the Taleban from power in late 2001, many Pakistanis were jailed in Afghanistan, and some were sent to Guantanamo. Since September 2004, some 35 Pakistanis have been freed from Guantanamo.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/27/2005 09:28 ||
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Suicide bombers struck a police headquarters, an army base and a hospital in Mosul on Sunday, killing 33 people in a setback to efforts to rebuild the northwestern city's police force, riven by intimidation from insurgents seven months ago.
The attacks in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, started early Sunday when a pickup carrying a suicide bomber with explosives hidden beneath watermelons slammed into a downtown police station near a market. U.S. Army Capt. Mark Walter said 10 policemen and two civilians were killed.
Less than two hours later, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the parking lot of an Iraqi army base on Mosul's outskirts, killing 16 people, Walter said. Most of the victims were civilian workers arriving at the site, he said. Of the seven injured, one lost a leg and another was paralyzed from the waist down, the military said.
In the afternoon, a third attacker, with explosives strapped on, blew himself up in the Jumhouri Teaching Hospital in a room used by police guarding the facility, killing five policemen. Inside, dead police officers who had apparently been sleeping were sprawled in their underwear, their bodies and the walls peppered with ball bearings.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The U.S. military praised the Iraqi forces for their efforts in the face of Sunday's attacks: "Policemen in Mosul have continued to man their posts."
Rumsfeld said he is bracing for even more violence. "We're not going to win against the insurgency. The Iraqi people are going to win against the insurgency. That insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years," Rumsfeld said on Fox News Sunday.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/27/2005 09:41 ||
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Roughed-up ârobberâ dies in hospital
A suspected robber, who was beaten up by a mob in front of the Chittagong Shopping Complex Saturday morning, died in Chittagong Medical College Hospital early Sunday.
The police said a gang of four riding in an auto-rickshaw swooped on Abul Bashar, a businessman, and robbed Tk 7 lakh, as he came out of a bank at about 11:30am.
Somehow, it just doesn't inspire the same amount of fear as jumping out of a SUV
As Basher cried for help, local people managed to catch one of them, Mohammed Tawhid, 28, of Patiya upazila in Chittagong, and beat him up severely, said the police.
"Ouchouchouchouch.....rosebud!"
The looted money was recovered from the robber and was handed over to the businessman. The police later rescued the robber in a critical condition and sent him to hospital.
Rushed him to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital Level One Trauma Center......where he croaked
Alleged criminal stabbed to death in city
A listed criminal was stabbed to death by his close accomplices at the cityâs Kafrul area on Saturday late night. According to the sources Abbas Ali (35), son of Somed Ali, resident of 5/1 Damal Court Bazar under Kafrul police station received fatal injuries when he was severely stabbed by his accomplices at a stage of their altercation at Saberalitek area at about 10 pm.
I'm guessing it was the last stage
The assailants fled away leaving the victim in a pool of blood.
Later, being informed by the local sources, the police recovered the body at about 11 pm.
"Kafrul Police Department, how may we assist you? Body in the street? He alive? No?....ok, we'll schedule a pickup."
Police claimed that Abbas was a notorious criminal and also accused in several cases including murder. The reason behind the murder might be a sequel to the conflict with his accomplices over sharing of money that comes from illegal toll or snatching.
"Don't bogart that loot, my friend....."
The body was sent to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy. A case was registered with Kafrul police station in this connection. But police failed to nab anybody till the time of filing this report on Sunday night.
Sagir Murder-Slain suspect's parents, sister held, quizzed
The police arrested the parents and a sister of Shaon, one of the suspected slain assailants of Jubo Dal leader Sagir Ahmed, at their Dhaleswari house in Keraniganj Saturday night. Members of the Special Branch (SB) of the police are quizzing them at its office to squeeze information about Shaon, called Geshu by the family. However, Geshu's relatives could not give the police any clue to his criminal activities and the gang he is tied to, the police said.
Geshu's father Altaf Uddin, mother Amirunnesa and sister Maksuda could only tell the police that they threw Geshu out of the house some four years ago after he had taken to criminal activities. They said since then they had no contact with him. They also said they knew that Geshu had married and has a child but could not say where they lived.
"Kicked him out, we did. Always causing trouble, ain't seen him in ages"
Earlier on Saturday, Geshu's father identified him at the morgue of Mitford hospital.
However, other sources said Geshu had been involved with a gang patronised by the brother of a ruling BNP lawmaker from the old part of the city. Meanwhile, Sagir's brother Syed Ahmed filed a case with Sutrapur Police Station late Saturday night, where he mentioned that four to five unidentified criminals gunned down his brother. He, however, did not cite any reason for the killing.
Assailants gunned down Sagir, general secretary of Dhaka City (south) Jubo Dal near his Nasir Uddin Sarder Lane house Friday. The law-enforcers intercepted the killers while they were fleeing off and shot dead Shaon after the gang had allegedly shot and wounded a police havilder.
So Shaon was gunned down by the cops for gunning down Sagir.
New police version
The Police Headquarters in a press statement yesterday, meanwhile, said Shaon was fatally wounded after he had taken a bullet fired by his associates when they were fleeing on being chased by a mob and members of the police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab).
Oh, so he was killed in a "crossfire"? Why didn't you say so, I'd have given him top billing.
It maintained that Havilder Rafiqul Islam of a police patrol caught Shaon, who managed to break free by shooting and wounding Rafiqul. As the locals, police and Rab chased the killers, they fired indiscriminately and Shaon received the bullet during the shooting. The mob eventually got hold of him and beat him up.
Shot in a "crossfire" then beaten by a mob. Not having a good day, was he.
The statement -- which came two days after the media criticised the killing of Shaon who it said could help expose the real perpetrators of the murder --
Ah, so maybe that story of him shooting Sagir doesn't hold water
further claimed that the police and Rab men "rescued" and sent him to Mitford Hospital where the doctors declared him dead.
"He's dead, Jim. Orderly, just stack him over in the corner with the other witnesses"
Interestingly, Sub-Inspector Shahid of Sutrapur Police Station told journalists on the day of the incident that Shaon was killed in the police and Rab firing at Raisahebbazar crossing in Old Dhaka after he had shot Havilder Rafiqul.
That was after his "gang" had allegedly shot Sagir. They all got away, leaving poor Shaon behind
A few thousand leaders and activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) took out a silent procession organised on Dhaka University campus yesterday to mourn Sagir. Before the procession, the JCD held a brief rally at the foot of Aparajeyo Bangla and demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment to the killers.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/27/2005 08:56 ||
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Steve are you ever worried about being the number one go-to guy on the RAB? It's got to be a burden.
June 26, 2005: Sunni Arab and al Qaeda gangs agree on one thing; their biggest enemy is the Iraqi police. The cops have become the major threat to the anti-government forces. This despite the fact that the police have had a hard time building a loyal, well led and trained force. This is because they had to start from zero. The Saddam era police were purposely kept weak, poorly trained and corrupt. These police were dismissed shortly after Saddam's government was put out of business. During Saddam's time, the real police work was done by the secret police and security units known more for their loyalty to Saddam than their interest in keeping the peace. The men who served in these units are wanted for war crimes. Many of them now work in anti-government gangs. Saddam often made deals with criminal gangs, taking a share of their profits in return for leaving them alone. The gangs were also expected to report any signs of disloyalty, to Saddam, and were sometimes used to terrorize neighborhoods that were thought to be potential hotbeds of opposition.
The coalition has spent two years trying to build a new police force. Kurds and Shia Arabs were not allowed into the secret police units, or the higher ranks of the regular police, when Saddam ruled. Thus there were few loyal Iraqis available to staff the new police force. Over the last two years, men who were willing to undergo months of training, and dangerous duty commanding newly formed police units, have grown into a new leadership for the police force. Some of these men are experienced police commanders from Saddam's time. Many of these men were hired, despite the risk that many were corrupt (despite promises that they had changed their ways), or were still loyal to Saddam. The corrupt, and the Saddam loyalists, have been dismissed in large numbers, leaving some experienced, effective, and largely loyal and corruption free, commanders. In Kurdish and Shia Arab areas, there are now effective police forces. The big problems remain in central Iraq, in Sunni Arab, or mixed Shia-Sunni Arab areas. But the police have become effective and reliable enough that the enemy has not, since last fall, been able to attack and take a police station. The enemy still tries. In the last week, there was a major attack on a police station. Over a hundred men took part in the attack, which was defeated by the police and army alone. At least ten of the attackers were killed, and 40 were captured. Many of the enemy wounded got away. Thus over half the attacking force was killed, wounded or captured. The anti-government forces are desperate to show they are more powerful than the police, and nothing does that better than taking, and pillaging, a police station. This latest defeat makes the enemy appear weaker, and encourages more Iraqis to actively side with the police. During the recent attack, the police received 55 calls from civilians around the police station, to report the attack and demand reinforcements. Some Iraqi civilians were seen firing, from their homes, at the men attacking the police stations.
Unable to take a police station, the Sunni Arab and al Qaeda gangs have concentrated on assassinations against police. Al Qaeda does this by sending suicide bombers into police stations, or as close as possible. The Sunni Arab gangs assassinate individual policemen, threaten others with the same treatment if they don't quit, or become a spy for the gangs. Groups of off duty police are attacked, or kidnapped and later killed. Out of a national police force of some 140,000, over 200 a week are being killed. So far, the anti-police violence has only encouraged more people to join the police. Many Kurdish and Shia Arab police volunteer to serve in Sunni Arab areas, where are not enough local men willing to be police. While this kind of service is dangerous, it gives these men a chance to fight back, after decades of oppression by Sunni Arabs. This is the civil war pundits warn is just around the corner. The civil war has been going in Iraq for a long time, and is now playing out in the battles between Kurdish and Shia Arab cops, and Sunni Arab gangs.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/27/2005 08:43 ||
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What an interesting - and fresh - perspective. This has gotta be Strategy Page, yes? Who ARE those guys? Old Spook?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/27/2005 9:08 Comments ||
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Out of a national police force of some 140,000, over 200 a week are being killed. So far, the anti-police violence has only encouraged more people to join the police.
That one fact speaks volumes about the character of these people. We can't let them down.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/27/2005 12:25 Comments ||
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Agreed, Mike. What's more impressive is that Iraqui citizens joined in the firefight AGAINST the terrorists.
A Kenyan judge has acquitted three men accused of conspiracy in the case of the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa. Nairobi Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule said prosecutors had failed to connect the men to the bombing. Fifteen people, including three Israeli tourists, died in the attack on the Paradise Hotel.
I'm not sure a Kenyan court could find a connection between the deaders and the attack...
Charges against four other Kenyan suspects in the bombing were thrown out of court earlier this month. The three suspects - Kubwa Mohammed Seif, Said Saggar Ahmed and Mohammed Khamis - were also accused of plotting a failed rocket attack on an Israeli airliner that took off from Mombasa airport on the same day. The attacks were widely blamed on al-Qaeda. No-one has been convicted in connection with the bombing so far, and no-one else is due to stand trial.
And at this point it doesn't look like anybody will be...
When the trial first opened in January last year, the prosecution described the three men as "sworn suicide bombers". Mr Seif's lawyer, Kirathe Wandugi, told the Associated Press news agency that his client was extremely happy with the magistrate's decision.
"Oh? They're not gonna hang me? Why, that makes me extremely happy!"
"Our clients have been exonerated and the course of justice has been met. It's been a very long trial. These people have suffered," Mr Wandugi said. Critics have said the men should never have been charged in the first place and that the evidence presented was at best circumstantial.
"Go, and bomb no more!"
Posted by: Steve ||
06/27/2005 08:16 ||
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Asked to respond to a report that US military representatives met with several Sunni Iraqi insurgents twice in June, Rumsfeld told Fox News ''there have probably been many more than that" and described the contacts as an effort to ''split people off and get some people to be supportive" of the political process in Iraq. Other parts of the US government, including the State Department and CIA, have also been holding secret meetings with Iraqi insurgent factions in an effort to stop the violence and coax them into the political process, according to US government officials and others who have participated in the efforts. The military plan, approved in August 2004, seeks to make a distinction between Iraqi insurgents who are attacking US troops because they are hostile to their presence, and foreign insurgents responsible for most of the suicide bombings -- which have killed more than 1,200 people in the last couple of months -- and whose larger political aims are unclear.
General John Abizaid, commander of the US Central Command who is in charge of the war in Iraq, told CNN yesterday that ''US officials and Iraqi officials are looking for the right people in the Sunni community to talk to in order to ensure that the Sunni Arab community becomes part of the political process. And clearly we know that the vast majority of the insurgents are from the Sunni Arab community. It makes sense to talk to them." But, Abizaid added, ''We're not going to compromise with Zarqawi," a reference to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is believed to be leading that part of the insurgency involving foreign fighters, particularly Islamic extremists arriving from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, and elsewhere.
Citing two Iraqi sources, the newspaper said that among the Sunnis in attendance was a representative from the Ansar al-Sunna Army, which claimed responsibility for killing 22 people in the dining hall of a US base at Mosul, and another from the Islamic Army in Iraq, which claimed responsibility for the murder of Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/27/2005 02:21 ||
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Ansar al-Sunna was negotiating. They didn't agree to terms, though, apparently. Now we've caught their leader.
Things seem to be happening in Iraq fast.
Keep the negotiating going with the remaining groups. Continue to honor the negotiations.
Separately, keep up the intensity on the insurgents. Keep hitting them hard.
#3
"US officials and Iraqi officials are looking for the right people in the Sunni community to talk to in order to ensure that the Sunni Arab community becomes part of the political process. And clearly we know that the vast majority of the insurgents are from the Sunni Arab community. It makes sense to talk to them."
While a proper response would be to tell the Sunnis to phuque off due to them blowing off the elections when they did, it would only be fair to give them one more chance, but only after hitting the bastards with a massive club and exacting a heavy price.
They aren't in a position to run the show anymore, and this point should be driven home.
#4
It'd be nice if they'd leak a few names...particularly if they weren't the names of the folks with whom we're really negotiating. Could stir things up, no?
#7
Magnesium is the main ingredient in Fire bombs, as 200,000 former citizens of Tokyo couldn't possibly tell you. Surprise: peat moss (no kidding) was the second main component.
#13
I thought it was currently against the rules to use napalm as a war weapon. If that's the case, of course we wouldn't use it, regardless how satisfying Mr. F. Thinker might find it. Besides, smart bombs are so much more effective when one is committed to rebuilding a society afterward.
#14
"...the newspaper said that among the Sunnis in attendance was a representative from the Ansar al-Sunna Army, which claimed responsibility for killing 22 people in the dining hall of a US base at Mosul... "
Better not be true. Wouldn't want to be carrying that history into a room full of war widows/widowers.
The latter two being made up of foreigners, the former being made up of Baathist Murder, Inc., maybe they're not the groups that were invited...
US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld has confirmed a British newspaper report that US officials had contacted insurgents in a bid to stem the violence plaguing Iraq but insisted such overtures were commonplace. The Islamic Army in Iraq has vowed to punish any insurgents who did so, according to an Internet statement. "The leadership of the Islamic Army in Iraq categorically denies that its representatives have negotiated with the crusaders either directly or indirectly," said the statement whose authenticity could not be verified. "Whoever does so will receive the appropriate punishment," it added.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/27/2005 02:16 ||
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Hmm. Almost sounds like there's a faction within Zarqawi's posse that wants to get out while the getting is good. Maybe Zarqawi is losing control of his recruits.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
06/27/2005 11:21 Comments ||
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These meetings have been common fare in Iraqi newspapers for about a week. Glad to see that the Times is better late than never.
Big news, Ansar al Sunnah is one of the most active Jihadi groups in Iraq. Odd that he is a Saudi, I thought I had read that Ansar al Sunnah was lead by an Iraqi.
Iraqi security Saturday arrested the head of the al-Qaida affiliated Ansar al-Sunna, leader Hilal Hussein al-Badrani, authorities said. A security source said al-Badrani, a Saudi national, was captured Saturday near the town of al-Shurqat outside the northern city of Mosul. He was in possession of weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and ammunition. The man is suspected of being a senior al-Qaida member in Iraq and heads an armed group called Ansar al-Sunna (Supporters of Sunnis). In a related incident, the U.S. military in Iraq said troops arrested ten gunmen suspected of launching rocket attacks on the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/27/2005 01:59 ||
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Is there anyone who can parse his tribal relationships from his name in the house?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
06/27/2005 2:37 Comments ||
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Paul, you're right. It's very odd. I thought Ansar was anti-Kurd creation of Saddam.
#3
Chuck-
I think you are confusing it with Ansar al-Islam: Ansar al-Islam is a radical Kurdish Islamic group that is supportive of Saddam Hussein's regime. Ansar al-Islam was established in December 2001 after a merger between Jund al-Islam, led by Abu Abdallah al-Shafi'i and the Islamic Movement splinter group led by Mullah Krekar.
#4
Ansar as-Sunnah split off from Ansar al-Islam. I believe it could be considered a division of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2005 8:44 Comments ||
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Is it safe to say that Ansar Al-Sunna has been be-headed?
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/27/2005 8:55 Comments ||
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Ansar al-Sunnah is a sub-group/successor to Ansar al-Islam that was formed after the former group got broken up by the US during the invasion and split into constituent chunks, one fleeing south into the Sunni Triangle and another heading east towards Iran.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/27/2005 9:26 Comments ||
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Suicide bombers struck a police headquarters, an army base and a hospital around Mosul on Sunday, killing 33 people in a setback to efforts to rebuild the northwestern city's police force that was riven by intimidation from insurgents seven months ago. At least 14 people were killed in attacks elsewhere in Iraq, including a U.S. soldier whose convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad and six Iraqi soldiers who were gunned down outside their base north of the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2005 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Steve ||
06/27/2005 12:03 Comments ||
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Petulant mouth, red-rimmed eyes, weak but double chin. He isn't getting enough sleep, and he isn't happy about it. But he certainly wasn't a member of the starving masses under big brother Saddy.
Unidentified attackers fired rockets at the family home of Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Muhammad Yousaf in Kalat, injuring two of his servants.
I've been thinking of having my head upholstered like that. Pretty snappy, don'tcha think?
Kalat Police said that three rockets hit the building where Jam Yousafâs family was present. Raziq Bugti, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, confirmed the incident, but nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The chief minister could not be contacted for comment. Jam Yousaf and his family were in Quetta when the pre-dawn attack happened in Kalat, about 200 kilometres south of Quetta, said Maj Akbar Lashari, a paramilitary official. Lashari said Jam Yousaf ârarelyâ visited his Kalat home because he lived mostly in his official residence in Quetta and the attack might have been aimed at intimidating the chief minister.
He and his family were in Quetta when the attack occurred, but his family was in the building when the attack occurred? I'm guessing the wife or wives and kiddies stay in Kalat, while Jam and his male relatives enjoy the fleshpots of Quetta. With a fine head of cloth like that, he prob'ly walks by and the ladies' burkas just roll up like window shades...
Prince Esa, the brother-in-law of the chief minister, told Daily Times that it was a miracle that the family was safe in the attack. He said that the assailants had disconnected the phone lines before the attack. Arshad, a servant at the chief ministerâs house, said four rockets were fired, but two hit the building. Local journalists said about six attackers riding cycles of violence motorbikes and pickups came to the area and fired rockets. They also fired at the building, but the police did not confirm it. Guards in the building retaliated the attack, but the attackers escaped.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2005 00:00 ||
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Damn, Fred! Two coffee alerts and I only just started reading. :)
#10
JEEZ it's an alert cap...haraam tight for protection.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/27/2005 9:45 Comments ||
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Never seen that model turban before. Is that a prototype of the 2006's out for a test drive? CM Jam would probably pass for a clown in any other culture. It's a shame about the man servants though. Surely they can claim workman's comp as taking incoming in the form of rocket would be in the normal scope and course of business there. Good help is probably really hard to find in in that neck of the woods.
#16
Until I read throught the comments I was sure that hat was a clever photoshop job. Surely, I thought to myself, nobody would really wear something that stupid looking. But it looks like I was wrong about the limits of Man's stupidity yet again. :-0
KATHMANDU - Communist guerrillas ambushed a government security patrol in Nepal, killing at least 12 security forces, and an ensuing battle left a number of rebels dead, military officials said on Sunday. The guerrillas ambushed the patrol on Saturday in a mountainous area near Khana, a village about 350 kilometers (220 miles) west of Katmandu, the officials said. The area is known to have a strong rebel presence.
A spokesman at the Royal Nepalese Armyâs regional command center at Pokhara confirmed that six soldiers and six policemen were killed in the attack. The official, who spoke on the usual condition of anonymity, said hundreds of soldiers were deployed to the area on Sunday to hunt down the attackers. Rain and heavy clouds made it difficult for army helicopters to land, he said.
The army said local villagers saw the bodies of several rebels being carried away. The rebels did not make any statements about the clash.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/27/2005 00:00 ||
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JAMMU, India - Three suspected terrorists militants were banged by Indian soldiers on Sunday while attempting to cross into Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani zone of the divided state, a defence official said. The heavily-armed terrorists militants were zapped near the ceasefire Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Indian and Pakistani zones of Kashmir, in the southern Rajouri district of Kashmir.
Indiaâs army went on high alert Saturday to prevent more terrorist rebel attacks in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir a day after a car bomb murdered nine Indian soldiers and injured 17 people. âWe have directed the soldiers to carry out night patrolling on the Line of Control for preventing terrorists militants from crossing into the Indian territory,â the defence official said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/27/2005 00:00 ||
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A senior Taliban commander on Sunday dismissed as false Afghan government reports that 178 guerrillas were killed in a US-backed offensive in southwestern Afghanistan last week.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened. Nope..."
Mullah Dadullah, one of two top Taliban commanders the government said had been surrounded in the fighting, telephoned reporters to say that only seven or eight guerrillas had been killed, including one commander, Mullah Mohammad Easa.
AKA Mulla Jar-Jar: "Meesah Easa!"
Speaking by satellite phone from an undisclosed location well inside Pakistan, Dadullah said the guerrillas had killed about 20 Afghan police and army troops and 14-18 from the US-backed foreign force hunting militants in Afghanistan. âThe government was claiming that it killed 178 Taliban,â he said. âThat is not true.â
"All those corpses, they imported them. They're Samoans. We can tell."
âThe government was claiming that it had surrounded Mullah Dadullah, Mullah Brother, Mullah Adbul Hanan, Mullah Abdul Basir and Mullah Abdul Hakim and that they would soon arrest or kill them,â he said. âThis was completely wrong.â The Defence Ministry said on Thursday that Dadullah and Brother, members of the Taliban leadership council led by elusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, and the three other commanders were surrounded in an area where the provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul meet. It later said they appeared to have escaped.
Leaving their troops in the lurch, but we don't dwell on that for some reason...
The government has said that most of the guerrillas were killed by US air strikes, in what by its figures would have been one of the bloodiest setbacks for the Taliban since their 2001 overthrow by US-led forces. It said three of its troops were killed in the operation and three hurt, while the US military said six of its soldiers were slightly wounded. Dadullah also said the guerrillas had shot down two US helicopters in the fighting. The US military said two of its Chinook helicopters were damaged by small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire during fighting on Tuesday and one had to make an emergency landing, but both returned to base without casualties. The US military on Wednesday gave an estimate of 40-50 guerrillas dead in the fighting but then referred reporters to the Afghan authorities for updates on casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2005 00:00 ||
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Losses?
We haven't lost a HOLY {SPIT} WARRIOR... we've gained 72 daughters-in-law...
2005-06-25) -- In a surprising change of heart, President George Bush today called on al-Qaeda deputy Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to "come to the table" to negotiate the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Although the president had been steadfast in asserting that he had no timetable for quitting Iraq and that freedom and democracy would prevail, today's statement was tantamount to an admission of defeat.
"We gave it the old college try," said Mr. Bush, in a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari. "But our opponents in the Democrat party were right. It's a quagmire. We can't beat the insurgents, and our shameless treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo have killed any chance we had at winning hearts and minds on the Arab street."
Mr. Bush said he would dispatch a U.S. envoy to the al-Qaeda embassy in Baghdad with an invitation to Mr. Zarqawi to come to Camp David and work out terms of peace, and the withdrawal timetable.
"I kind of hoped that Iraq's 25 million people would experience the blessings of freedom," Mr. Bush said, "but with mid-term elections coming up here in the states, Republicans need to show the American people that we're as sensitive to media polling data as our Democrat opponents."
Upon hearing the news of the Bush-Zarqawi peace talks, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, immediately filed papers forming a 2008 presidential exploratory committee.
Two gunmen shot and killed an activist of the Sunni Tehreek in Dera Ismael Khan on Sunday, ARY news reported. Dr Bilal Arish was in his clinic when two gunmen entered the clinic and opened fire and fled on a motorbike. Dr Arish was taken to hospital where he died.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2005 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.
Saudi security forces arrested two Muslim extremists suspected of involvement in the slaying of a police officer in Mecca last week, reports said Monday. The Daily al-Watan said the two suspects were rounded up in Taif in western Saudi Arabia because they of their association with 
President Alvaro Uribe flew to southwest Colombia to oversee a counterattack against leftist rebels on Sunday, a day after 25 soldiers were killed in attacks across the country that shattered hopes that the insurgents were nearing defeat. More than 1,000 troops backed by helicopter gunships hunted down several hundred rebels believed to be heading for the nearby Ecuador border to seek refuge, the army said. "The murder of our soldiers pains us greatly," Uribe said after meeting with military commanders in Puerto Asis, some 330 miles southwest of Bogota. "But to make concessions to terrorism or to bow to terrorism undermines democracy," he said. Uribe added that he intends to discuss the situation along the border with Ecuadorean authorities.
KABUL - US-led forces in southern Afghanistan shot dead a gun-wielding suspected militant as he sped towards a checkpoint on a motorcycle, a military statement said on Monday. The incident took place on Sunday east of Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, some 340 kilometers (212 miles) south of Kabul. Zabul is believed to be a hotbed of rebels linked to the ousted Taleban regime. âThe man approached the checkpoint on a motorcycle at a high rate of speed and ignored verbal warnings to stop,â the US military statement said. âAs he drew closer he brandished an AK-47 assault rifle. 
LAHORE, Pakistan - Pakistan released 17 men on Monday who had been freed from the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba only to be detained on their return home, an official said. The men returned to Pakistan nine months ago following detention at the US facility for terror suspects, said Tahir Ashrafi, a religious affairs adviser for the government in the eastern Punjab province.
Roughed-up ârobberâ dies in hospital
Suicide bombers struck a police headquarters, an army base and a hospital around Mosul on Sunday, killing 33 people in a setback to efforts to rebuild the northwestern city's police force that was riven by intimidation from insurgents seven months ago. At least 14 people were killed in attacks elsewhere in Iraq, including a U.S. soldier whose convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad and six Iraqi soldiers who were gunned down outside their base north of the capital.
Unidentified attackers fired rockets at the family home of Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Muhammad Yousaf in Kalat, injuring two of his servants.
KATHMANDU - Communist guerrillas ambushed a government security patrol in Nepal, killing at least 12 security forces, and an ensuing battle left a number of rebels dead, military officials said on Sunday. The guerrillas ambushed the patrol on Saturday in a mountainous area near Khana, a village about 350 kilometers (220 miles) west of Katmandu, the officials said. The area is known to have a strong rebel presence.
JAMMU, India - Three suspected 
A senior Taliban commander on Sunday dismissed as false Afghan government reports that 178 guerrillas were killed in a US-backed offensive in southwestern Afghanistan last week.
