Islamic militants battled Saudi special forces for a third day Tuesday in a seafront district of this eastern city, with the extremists appearing to be determined to fight to their last bullet. Three militants and two police officers were killed in the early hours Tuesday, a security official said in Riyadh, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The fighting intensified after daybreak, when a military helicopter dropped off a team of commandos near the villa where the militants were holed up. Rocket propelled grenades exploded, and the black smoke billowing from the roof of the militants' villa became thicker.
Police cordoned off the entire Mubarakiah district in Damman, 250 miles northeast of the capital Riyadh. Police checkpoints did not allow any vehicle to leave the neighborhood Tuesday. Residents were kept awake for a second night Monday by sporadic gunfire and the deafening explosions of rocket propelled grenades, fired by the special forces at the villa.
A convoy of security vehicles brought in fresh troops and ammunition on Tuesday morning. A line of ambulances was parked at the perimeter of the battle zone. Late Monday night officials at Damman Central Hospital said about 30 Saudi police officers, including some critically wounded, had been admitted. Security officials declined to give overall figures for the dead and wounded.
Late Monday a security official said one of the two militants killed Sunday was No. 3 on the country's most wanted list. He was identified as Zaid Saad Zaid al-Samari, 31, a Saudi sought in connection with the numerous terror attacks launched in the kingdom since May 2003. The shootout caused the U.S. Embassy to close the American consulate in Dhahran, 15 miles southwest of Dammam, on Monday.
Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki has said security forces are facing an unknown number of militants armed with firearms and homemade explosives. "We are dealing with people who have a tendency to blow themselves up and we know they have a significant number of weapons and explosives and might take actions that will have a negative effect," al-Turki told the AP.
The Interior Ministry has said the gunmen are affiliated to a "deviant group," the term the Saudis usually use for the local branch of the al-Qaida network. Since May 2003, Islamic militants have carried out numerous attacks, suicide bombings and kidnappings in the kingdom. They have tended to target Westerners in a bid to cripple the economy. Westerners occupy important positions in the oil industry. Al-Qaida wants to topple the Saudi royal family because of its close ties with the West, particularly the United States.
The violence in Dammam flared as the U.S. Homeland Security adviser, Frances Townsend, met King Abdullah and other top Saudi officials Monday in Riyadh. The deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command, Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, met Saudi deputy defense minister, Prince Khalid Bin Sultan.
Posted by: ed ||
09/06/2005 07:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
My God, that must be the most confusing battle, ever. I mean, the two sides aren't just indistinguishable, they're interchangeable!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/06/2005 7:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Saudi security forces stormed a villa where Islamic militants were holed up Tuesday, ending three days of fierce fighting that killed four policemen and a number of militants, a security official said. Gunfire and explosions rocked the district in the eastern Saudi city of Dammam for hours Tuesday morning as special forces dropped off by helicopter besieged the villa. At one point, an explosion blasted debris and sent smoke out of a neighboring building.
After noon, the fighting fell silent, and special forces buses were seen leaving the area. A security official confirmed that the fighting had ended and police were clearing the scene.
Some charred bodies were found inside the building, the official said, adding that four security troops were killed and 10 wounded during three days of fighting. The official spoke condition of anonymity because of Interior Ministry rules. State-run television quoted unnamed security officials giving the same information.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/06/2005 11:09 Comments ||
Top||
#4
"We are dealing with people who have a tendency to blow themselves up
A Saudi police officer was killed yesterday in an exchange of fire as the siege by Saudi security forces of suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists entered its second day. An officer shot in the siege yesterday has since died of his wounds. The militant who was shot and wounded yesterday outside a supermarket early on in the incident has also died.
We can only hope it was very painful...
Unconfirmed reports said the two militants shot in Dammam on Sunday had figured on a list of 36 most wanted terrorists. They identified the pair as Zaid Saad Al-Samari, 31, and Walid Mutlaq Al-Radadi, 21, who died in the shootout with security forces outside a supermarket on Muhammad ibn Fahd Street on Sunday.
Another couple to check off the list...
An official Interior Ministry source said late Sunday that security forces had killed two suspects following a gunbattle in Dammam. Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, a spokesman of the ministry, said two policemen died of wounds sustained in the shootout. Gen. Turki told Arab News that the authorities had no immediate plans to storm the building in Mubarakiya district but would instead lay siege to the building in a bid to capture the gunmen alive. âWe are not in a hurry because time is in our favor and we want to avoid casualties among security officers,â he said.
"Yeah. We got 'em surrounded. Where they gonna go?"
Saudi television showed a heavy gunbattle between security forces and militants, resulting in at least one fire. Soldiers were shown firing from rooftops, one of them using a rocked-propelled grenade launcher. The authorities described the besieged militants as members of Al-Qaeda network, who have carried out a wave of shootings and bombings in the Kingdom since May 2003. âSporadic gunfire is continuing around the buildings where the members of the deviant group are holed up,â one security source said, adding that there were 10 suspects inside. âThe security forces have reinforced their positions and are bringing in bulldozers and additional heavy equipment.
Good idea. Drop the house on 'em...
âWeâre in no rush to storm the building as weâre hoping to capture them alive and obtain information about wanted terrorists,â he said.
I'd just kill 'em and then round up everybody they know.
Residents reported hearing heavy gunfire as they were evacuated from nearby homes. One witness said he saw scared children being driven out as a helicopter hovered overhead. There were unconfirmed reports that terrorists had killed one of their own colleagues when he tried to surrender to security officers.
Surrendering is about the same thing as converting to Buddhism...
The reports also indicated that the terrorists might have run away from Madinah after their commander Saleh Al-Oufi was gunned down by security forces last month. The terrorists had turned the building into a hide-out and a base for making weapons. They rented it two months ago through a real estate office for an annual rent of SR40,000.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
A Yemeni court has accused 36 suspected rebels from the country's Zaidi minority of plotting to kill President Ali Abd Allah Salih. Adding to a catalogue of alleged crimes for which the 36 are on trial, prosecutor Said al-Aqil told a Sanaa court that the accused had also planned to kill high-ranking army officers. The defendants, eight of whom are being tried in absentia, are accused of carrying out a spate of attacks on soldiers and military vehicles in Sanaa in recent months, in which one officer was killed and 27 other people rounded.
The Zaidis are a Shia Muslim sect dominant in northwestern Yemen but in the minority in the mainly Sunni country. President Salih has accused Zaidi rebels of seeking to overthrow his republican government. Hundreds have been killed in fierce fighting between the rebels and government forces in the country's northwest. Two rounds of fighting in Saada province last year and again in March-April involved rebels from the Faithful Youth movement of slain radical preacher Husain al-Houthi, who was killed by the army last September after leading a nearly three-month uprising. The rebels reject as illegitimate the republican regime which seized power in a 1962 coup, overthrowing the Zaidi imam.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
A Briton arrested in the Channel Tunnel had traces of explosives in his luggage and was planning attacks in pursuit of the cause of militant Islam, a court heard today. Andrew Rowe had also written a secret code in which words such as target, police and weapons were substituted for mobile phone models, an Old Bailey jury heard. The code "made it possible to communicate in an innocent message which only spoke about mobile telephones", Mark Ellison, prosecuting, told the court. Its details were found in the address at Ash Road, Birmingham, where Mr Rowe's estranged wife and children were living, Mr Ellison said.
Mr Rowe also wrote pages of detailed technical information on how to use a mortar, which were found in a cupboard in a west London flat where he had been living. Police found traces of explosive on socks which had been rolled into a ball and attached to a cord, making them ideal for cleaning a mortar bomb, it was alleged.
Mr Rowe, 34, of Maida Vale, west London, was arrested as he left the French side of the tunnel to return to Britain from Frankfurt, Germany, in October 2003. He denies four charges under the Terrorism Act, three allegations that he had articles for use in terrorism and one of making a record of information for use in terrorism. Mr Ellison said a notebook contained around 20 pages, in Mr Rowe's writing, containing details on how to aim and fire an 82mm Russian mortar - a high explosive bomb fired from a tube. The sock ball found in Mr Rowe's luggage "was found to have significant levels of high explosive traces in it", the jury was told.
Naughty, naughty
The substitution code referred to Nokia telephones. Giving examples of the code, Mr Ellison said money was Nokia 3310, trouble-police was 3410, weapon 3610, airport 3310, army base 3331. Mr Ellison said the items detailed in the charges were for use in the preparation of, or the commission of, acts of serious violence to people or damaging property.
This was in advance of the ideological or religious cause followed by militant Muslims who believed it was their duty to wage jihad, or holy war. "That cause is one and the same militant ideological cause that is publicly promoted by Osama bin Laden and commonly attributed to al-Qaida and militant Islamic groups," Mr Ellison added. Mr Rowe had undergone a religious conversion to become a Muslim in the mid-1990s and called himself Yusuf Abdullah. In 1997, the year his conversion was complete, he married Shabia Tafla. They lived at a number of rented addresses before she moved out with their four children in 2002. The case was adjourned until tomorrow.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/06/2005 14:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Suspected rebels dynamited four energy pylons Monday, leaving more than 2.3 million people in southwestern Colombia without electricity. Energy officials were scrambling to find a temporary fix while the army secured the area so crews could repair the downed towers, Mines and Energy Minister Luis Ernesto Mejia said. Authorities believe Colombia's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was responsible, an army official said.
The FARC and a smaller guerrilla group have been fighting the Colombian government for four decades. They often blow up energy towers, bridges, oil pipelines and other infrastructure, aiming to wreak havoc on the economy. The rebels have de-facto control of large parts of the region along the Ecuadorean border where the pylon attacks occurred and in the past few months have launched several deadly assaults on military installations in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Imperialist Running Dog Pylons of Death⢠have been neutralized. The brave people of Columbia can sleep peacefully, now. In the dark. For the nest 2 weeks. You're welcome.
A suspected terrorist extradited from Kazakhstan to Russia has links with al-Qaeda, a spokesman for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday. Sergei Ignatchenko said Rustam Chagilov, who was born in 1978, had maintained links with two members of the international terrorist organization's cell in the North Caucasus: Abu Zeit and Marwan. They were both killed in 2005. "FSB bodies are currently investigating Chagilov's complicity in the carrying out and organization of a series of terrorist attacks in Russia," Ignatchenko said. Chagilov was handed over to Russia on September 1 after the FSB put him on the wanted list in June as a suspect in crimes in Chechnya.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/06/2005 00:12 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Everyday you gotta cry some, everyday you gotta die some. He'd rather be in Guantanimo methinks.
#3
Gitmo beats the basement of the Lubyanka
I just finished reading Applebaum's history of the gulag. Even if today's version is watered down compared to the stalin-era version, Brrr...
While i can't quite work up any sympathy for the terrorists, anyone winding up at magdan or kolyma gets a wince from me. A 3 month life expectancy. It puts Gitmo and even Abu Ghraib at its worst in high contrast.
Posted by: N guard ||
09/06/2005 15:37 Comments ||
Top||
The UN probe into the murder of Lebanon's late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri made a significant breakthrough following new information which had been provided by a Syrian defector to Chief UN Investigator Detlev Mehlis. According to Paris-based intelligence specialist Intelligence Online, the defector, Colonel Mohammed Safi, provided information regarding the types of explosives used in the bombing which killed Hariri last February. Safi revealed that the explosives had been purchased from Slovakia.
Safi, who had previously directed the office of General Ali Khalil, Syria's former intelligence chief, had supposedly been convinced to defect from Syria's ranks by US and Saudi intelligence services. The former colonel initially left Syria for Saudi Arabia, where he was interrogated by Saudi intelligence services and later handed over to US authorities. Safi approached Mehlis and discussed details of the assassination in two separate meetings in Geneva.
With these latest developments, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a bitter political foe of Hariri, has come under increasing scrutiny regarding involvement in the assassination, as four pro-Syrian generals with close ties to him have been accused of complicity; many have called for his resignation as a result. Lahoud, a pro-Syrian, has stated firmly that he will remain in office until the completion of his two-year term as president, and has called the accusations "political campaigning". Butros Harb, a Lebanese legislator, was quoted as saying that "President Lahoud is indirectly responsible for the actions undertaken by the four arrested ... because he chose them himself for those positions."
Meanwhile, Syrian authorities have accused the United States and its allies of using the Hariri investigation as a means to tarnish Syria's image. Syrian state-run radio announced recently that "Nobody has any doubts about the honesty of Mehlis...but the leaders in Washington and other Western countries are trying to use this criminal affair to damage Syria after the failure of all their attempts to tarnish its image." Syria has stated its willingness to cooperate in everyway with the UN probe into the assassination.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/06/2005 09:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...Safi, who had previously directed the office of General Ali Khalil, Syria's former intelligence chief, had supposedly been convinced to defect from Syria's ranks by US and Saudi intelligence services....
If this is true (I have doubts), then the Saudis have decided to actively encourage the fall of Assad Jr.
#2
then the Saudis have decided to actively encourage the fall of Assad Jr.
Hariri was a close friend to the Saudi royal family, this from Wikipedia:
Somewhat later, in 1978, Hariri became a citizen of Saudi Arabia as a reward from the Saudi royal family for the high quality of his entrepreneurial services, and became the kingdom's emissary to Lebanon. Hariri then went on to become Saudi Arabia's leading entrepreneur, acquiring Oger in 1979, and founding Oger International, based in Paris.
It's not business, it's personnel.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/06/2005 11:22 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Hariri was a major producer of concrete. I bet he knew the Bin Laden family pretty well.
UN investigators probing the death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri have uncovered leads in Beirut that point to high-level involvement in the plot to kill him, a report said yesterday. Der Spiegel weekly news magazine said the arrest of four allies of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud at the weekend âcan mean a breakthrough and bring Syria to book.â
It's only a start. Expect the bad guyz to wiggle and obfuscate and counterattack if they can get away with it — or if they're cornered and have nothing to lose...
âThe UN team ... believes it can now prove that those arrested plotted the murder in an attempt to silence the former anti-Syrian prime minister,â it said. The leads include fingerprints found in an empty apartment in Beirut where it is believed the plot to kill Hariri was hatched and a car which was seen following his convoy on Feb. 14 just before it was struck by a powerful bomb that killed the premier and 19 other people. The car belongs to Lebanonâs former army intelligence director Raymond Azar, according to Der Spiegel, which is regularly reporting on the UN probe lead by German state prosecutor Detlev Mehlis.
If that's true, it's a good indication that you don't have to pass an IQ test to sign up with Leb intelligence...
It said Mehlis has also found a trail of telephone calls that âleads directly to the highest levels of the security apparatus.â
That's downright sloppy. I guess they had it their own way for so long they eventually decided that there was no way anybody was going to bring them to book. That reinforces my opinion that they considered the Hariri boom nothing more than business as usual — they were probably surprised as hell when anything came of it.
A Lebanese judge on Saturday ordered the four suspects to be held in custody after he questioned them about the murder and their arrest is seen as the first major step toward a trial in the case. They are Azar, presidential guard commander Mustafa Hamdan, former general security chief Jamil Al-Sayed and ex-internal security head Ali Al-Hage. Mehlis, however, has said that he believes they are âonly part of the pictureâ that makes up the plot to kill Hariri.
Since there are strings tied to their limbs that run back to Syria that's not surprising...
The investigatorâs mandate expires in October and he has accused Syria trying to stall his work, leading to calls from the international community to Damascus to cooperate. Syria has denied any involvement in the assassination which sparked a wave of public protests, prompting the departure of Syrian troops in April and transforming Lebanese politics. The state radio charged yesterday that the United States and its Western allies have âhatched a planâ to use the inquiry into the murder of Hariri to damage Syria.
Toldja so. But with the position they're in, booming somebody in Beirut won't accomplish anything, and if they boom Mehlis or Mr. Presiding Judge they've made things a lot worse — they could end up with the 82nd Airborne and the French Paras in Damascus...
Radio Damascus reaffirmed that Syria was prepared to cooperate in full with the UN inquiry but also seethed over continued accusations that it was implicated in the assassination of Hariri.
Oh, I like it when they seethe...
âSyria has nothing to hide and has no fear about the Hariri affair. On the contrary it has invited Mehlis to Damascus so that he can meet the people he would like to,â the radio said in its daily commentary. âNobody has any doubts about the honesty of Mehlis or about his capacity to discover the truth. But the leaders in Washington and other Western countries are trying to use this criminal affair to damage Syria after the failure of all their attempts to tarnish its image.â
We're not doing the investigation, are we?
âThe plan hatched against the region will damage Syria and also the whole Arab world. Besieging Syria and breaking its historic links with Lebanon are aimed at imposing foreign domination,â over the two countries, it alleged.
Syria running Leb as a colony wasn't foreign domination?
Syria has vehemently rejected allegations of involvement in the February bomb blast in Beirut that killed the anti-Damascus Hariri and 20 others. Mehlis wants to interrogate the former head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, Rustom Ghazali, and two other former top agents in Beirut. He is to hold talks in Syria on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Syria has nothing to hide and has no fear about the Hariri affair. On the contrary it has invited Mehlis to Damascus so that he can meet the people he would like to,
Mehlis better have good security. Syria is like a cornered rat and could strike out at it's chief accuser.
Three powerful bombs exploded in Dadu, Sukkur and Nawabshah on Tuesday night, but no casualties were reported. In Dadu, a powerful bomb went off in front of National Bank near New Chowk, shattering windowpanes of nearby buildings and damaging a car. After initial investigations, the police concluded that the blast had occurred due to a firecracker. Another bomb exploded in Nawabshah on Skrind Road near a branch of National Bank, leaving its windows smashed. The police cordoned off the area. No one was arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2005 21:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
A unmanned US spy plane Monday thwarted an Iraqi rebel mortar attack on a sprawling US base, firing two missiles which killed 11 insurgents and wounded four more, the military said.
A US Air Force Predator expended two Hellfire missiles against a mortar firing position in the vicinity of Balad" in central Iraq, the Air Force said for its part.
The vehicles took the wounded to a hospital in Khalis, in Diyala Province" where US and Iraqi forces arrested six of the suspects Meanwhile 2 more bled to death as the ER staff were checking their insurance coverage, the statement added.
11 dead + 6 arrested. Quite a crowd for a mortar attack, trainees?
#1
why save any of them? they are terrorists, out of any uniform and as noted ssoooooooo many times on RB before, not subject to Genevea or any comfort. 9MM lobotomies
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/06/2005 19:50 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Depends on whether the drone comes under enemy AAA fire.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/06/2005 21:23 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Re #1. Maybe we should learn something from Saddam: chop off their hands and send them home. We could at least chop off their fingers, leave them their thumbs and pinkies so they can wipe their @rse and pick their noses.
OTOH, practicing sex change operations on wounded insurgents would make for an interesting social dynamic. Might make some of the jihadis think more seriously about the virgin count as well.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/06/2005 22:19 Comments ||
Top||
#9
The only thing that troubles me is the use of expensive Hellfires ($58,000/per) on those toadstools. We *should* have drones in pre-production by now that could replicate an A-10 Warthog in weapons systems and better it in other ways. Had this drone been firing 30mm gatling gun it could have hosed these lizards at a discount.
Right now, the A-10 rules the CAS air. A drone equivalent would be astounding. Imagine what a combat division could do with 30 of those SOBs?
A fully functional A-10 costs about $2.4M The drone equivalent might be half that much. It doesn't need to pack all the weapons systems that the full version does, and getting rid of the pilot would give it hours more air time and ammo.
#10
Prob a single mortar team + resupply + defenders, as two or more mortar teams plus latter will defin be too large, too noisy, and too radioactive to hide from base sensors and US air recce and SATWAR. As for A10-style/sized armed UAVS, its coming.
Top Khulna terror killed in encounter
Sept 5 : A top terror of Khulna, Md Saifuzzaman alias Shoaib alias Ripon alias Babu, 30, was killed in an encounter between RAB members and his associates in Rupsha upazila of Khulna district early today (Monday). A regional leader of the Janajuddha group of the outlawed Purba Banglar Communist Party, Shoaib was one of the most wanted outlaws. He was an accused in at least 16 different cases including 8 cases for murder. He was a charge-sheeted accused in the journalist Humayun Kabir Balu murder case of Khulna thana. He was also a FIR-named accused in the Havilder Akram murder case of Sonadanga thana.
"I'm wanted on 12 systems!"
According to sources, Shoaib was a most dreaded extortionist who used to maintain a gang for collection of illegal toll from different organisations and individuals in Khulna city and adjacent areas. Due to his criminal activities, both his parents and three brothers severed all connections with him by making a declaration before the Notary Public in March, 2003. His father Maulana Abdul Wahab, better known as Bulbuleay Bangladesh, is a well-known Islamic cleric in Khulna and Barisal divisions.
Dad wouldn't have disowned him if he had only persued a career in jihad
According to a press release issued today by RAB-6, a RAB patrol team stationed at Katakhali crossing of Rupsha tried to halt a private car at the designated check-point at about 3-40 am today (Monday) but it sped away towards the Rupsha bridge, defying the signals for stoppage. Immediately, the officer-in-charge of the RAB patrol team sent wireless message to another patrol party of RAB stationed at Jabusha crossing, asking them to halt the car.
"Calling all cars, we got a runner!"
Seeing the obstacles created by the Jabusha patrol, the occupants of the car started firing on the RAB members and their vehicle from their running car.
"Da coppers blocked the road! Open fire!"
Reacting against the firing, the RAB men took cover beyond their own vehicles and other barriers and began to fire back at the car.
"Return aimless fire!"
During this exchange of fire, the car hit the railings of a culvert on the road and came to a halt.
Wow, just like "Wildest Police Videos".
The occupants of the car then got down and began to run away from the scene, firing at random.
"Random fire, don't fail us now!"
When the firing stopped, the RAB men cordoned off the area, conducted a thorough search and found the bulletâhit outlaw lying beside the car. He was sent to Khulna Sadar Hospital where the attending doctors declared him dead.
"He's dead, Jim"
The members of the elite force conducted a search operation at the nearby Jabusha village to nab the fleeing terrorists but none could be traced.
Vanished, into the night. Just like they were never there.
The RAB members recovered one foreign SBBL gun, one country made revolver, eight rounds of ammunition and three spent cartridges from the scene. The car abandoned by the miscreants was seized by the police.
"For Sale, used get-away car. Only shot up once. Needs cleaning"
According to the press release, the elite force strengthened patrolling and checking of the vehicles on key points last night after it had received information from some "secret" sources that some suspicious elements traveling in a private car from Dhaka along the Dhaka-Mawah-Gopalganj road on the night of September 4 would reach Khulna and might carry out some destructive activities there.
That "secret" source wouldn't have been the now deceased Shoaib, would it? Just curious.
The press release says that the patrol microbus of the RAB has been damaged after it was hit by the bullets fired by the miscreants.
"Crap, now I'll have to fill out those vehicle damage reports, in triplicate! Next time, rookie, you're signing for the car"
Film actress Prema held on charge of beating taxi driver
Police arrested the film actress Prema and three others including her brother and sister from the cityâs Ramna area on Sunday. Sources said film actress Tania Shikder Prema along with her brother Sumon, sister Shova and domestic help Nargis were going to meet a friend in a taxicab.
Prema was locked in an altercation with the cab driver Shaheen and beat him mercilessly in front of the High Court under Ramna police station.
Hearing the shouts, a patrol team of police rushed to the spot and arrested all of them on charge of assaulting the driver.
Some things are universal, I guess.
2 snatchers beaten to death in Chittagong
Sept 5: Two alleged snatchers were killed and another was severely injured in mass beating by the mob at Mirjarpole at Moradpur in the city at around 8 pm tonight. The identity of the victims could not be known till filing this report at 8.30 pm tonight.
"Yuck, we're gonna need DNA to ID this lot"
Sources said, a gang of armed miscreants numbering four attacked one person at Mirjarpole at Moradpur in the city at around 8 pm tonight to snatch money from him.
"Yar, we be the Miscreants of Moradpur! Give us yur money!"
The victim started to shout when the snatchers attacked him.
"HELP!"
Hearing the shout of the victim, local people surrounded the snatchers.
"Hey, they're trying to rob Bob! Get them!"
The people caught three of them while another snatcher could manage to escape from the spot. The mob beat the said snatchers severely causing the death of two of them on the spot and injuring another one.
WACK..SLAM..KAPOW..THUD..."rose..bud!"..
Meanwhile, police rushed to the spot and recovered the alleged snatchers. Police sources said, two of them died on the spot and another one was admitted to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital at 8. 30 pm tonight.
"He's still alive, Jim. But, that's gonna leave one hell of a mark"
It may be mentioned that it is the second incident of mass beating in Chittagong within three days. Earlier, six dacoits were killed and five others injured severely in mass beating at Noyahat at Kashias under Potiya upazila in the district on the night of September 2 last. The armed dacoits looted huge household goods, money and gold during the robbery there.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/06/2005 13:36 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"patrol microbus "?
The mind boggles.
one foreign SBBL gun,
Well, at least it's different from the old J frame revolver or the horrible shutter gun. Now where did I put my copy of "Jane's Small Arms"?
Posted by: N guard ||
09/06/2005 15:28 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The RAB members recovered three spent cartridges from the scene
They must have that new disappearing brass ammo over there. How else can you have a massive shootout with only three shells being expended?
#6
I *love* the Crossfire Gazette. Tales of Justice and Heroism. Better than Dick Tracy. It cries out to be a web comic. I just hope my mail order copy of "Jane's Small Arms of Southeast Asia" arrives soon.
September 6, 2005: The United States is, literally, fortifying Iraqâs borders. Never as tightly guarded as the frontiers in the classic Soviet style police state, Saddams guards covered the main roads pretty well. But most of the 3,600 kilometers of land borders were covered by little forts, which were usually 25-30 kilometers apart. About three dozen border guards manned each fort. In some areas, there are additional outposts every four kilometers. Most of these forts have fallen into disrepair, or been destroyed. The American plan is a series of 300 fortified bases or forts, and a force of 32,000 new border guard troops. At the moment, there are only 12,000 people in the border force, and only about half the forts and bases are completed, or under construction.
Many of the border bases will, literally, be concrete forts, with four turrets and metal doors and gates. Normally, each fort holds a shift of two or three dozen border guards (some of whom are always out on patrol or manning a road block.) Firing slits are built into the roof parapets. Each of the four turrets has three firing ports as well. Each fort also have two generators, and air conditioners for some of the rooms. Supplies of fuel, food and water are kept on hand, to enable the fort to withstand a siege of several days.
Many of the border guards are currently living in tents, or half-ruined forts from the Saddam era. Smugglers and terrorists frequently take shots at the border guard camps, with rifles and mortars. So the border guards are eager to get into their new forts. The exact dimensions of the forts varies a bit, but most are 40x40 feet, with fifteen foot high walls and 25 foot high towers. The walls are thick enough to stop heavy machine-gun bullets and RPGs. The Americans are urging the Iraqis to equip all the forts with sensors, which would make it possible to really seal off the border. The Iraqis, including the border guards, may not want to do this. Corruption among the border guards is an old tradition, with bribes by smugglers accounting for a large fraction of the border guards pay.
Iraqâs land borders total 3,631 kilometers (Iran 1,458, Jordan 181, Kuwait 242, Saudi Arabia 814, Syria 605, and Turkey 331.) Iran and Syria are the ones that are getting forts first, because these are experiencing the most problems with illegal crossings.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/06/2005 09:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Maybe they can bring some of the lessons learned back for the border with Mexico.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/06/2005 9:34 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Mrs. D..That would be seen as a racially motivated act.
#4
Hey guys, this is just a general email to all R-burgers, don't mean to poach this thread to do it but am a little pressed for time. Moderators - Maybe this should go on Page 4 or something? I'm not sure of the protocol.
Anyways, I've been offline for a while doing some training in the So Cal desert. I'm on my way to Iraq within the next week. It's been a fast life the past couple months to say the least. I'll still post whenever possible to update you all on what's really going on over there from my perspective at least. I'll post non-sensitive stuff on Rantburg of course. Also, I'll be dropping the "Jarhead" handle from now on in order to be a little more anonymous when shooting emails from overseas. Plus, I don't want to misconstrue my personal thoughts W/official USMC positions. My new call sign will be "Broadhead6". The only info I can give right now is that I'll be in Iraq, west of Baghdad. When I get all the Force Protection briefs in-country about do's and dont's of blogging I'll prolly be able to get less and less vague. Hopefully that will be the case real soon. Until then, if anyone wants to do the personal email thing or even do snail mail from there give me about a week or two to get settled in. I have a personal account and a mailing address that I will have no problem sharing w/Fred or any of the regulars on here. (i.e. dragonfly, .com, bh, trailing wife, liberal hawk, shipman, OP, OS, etc) Sorry if I forgot to mention anybody. Anyways, take care y'all and hope to be talking to you soon from the Sandbox. God Bless.
JH now BH6
Posted by: The artist formerly known as Jarhead ||
09/06/2005 10:34 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Broadhead6...look forward to reading your posts. Stay safe.
#6
West, huh? You stay safe while you're rockin' n' rollin', y'hear? Shoot a REMF and get some of that new body armor, heh. I wondered how long you'd be offline - and it's been waay too long. I'm RA, but Semper Fi, bro. ;-)
#7
BH6, good luck and Godspeed. Settle things down in the Wild West and let us know if you need any care packages.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/06/2005 11:27 Comments ||
Top||
#8
ex-Jarhead/now-BroadHead6, stay safe and bring your honor home with your life and health. Good luck, and oorah! :)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
09/06/2005 11:32 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Best wishes dear Jarhead. We'll keep the home fires burning pending your safe and happy return. Let us know if there's anything we can do for your family while you are away.
#12
Jarhead/BH6: May God bless you and keep you safe, DevilDog. You make us all proud. Hope to hear some good non-MSM-tainted word from you soon about how things are really going!
#13
Happy hunting, Jarhead! You and your Marines will be in our thoughts and prayers until you get back. And do let us know how we can help Mrs. Formerly-known-as-Jarhead. We stay behind spouses have to take care of one another. ;-) (Mr. Wife is navigating the wilds of Boston this week, which isn't quite the same as your little adventure, but the staying behind bit is much of a piece.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/06/2005 12:39 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Sounds like you're heading where the action is! Good Luck and Happy Hunting!! I'll say a prayer for a successful mission and a safe return. God Bless, and THANKS.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/06/2005 13:06 Comments ||
Top||
#20
Take care Jarhead, and remember all of us here are cheering you and your unit on! Always appreciated your comments when I was more active at this site. We'll send you a care package if you notify Fred re: address.
#21
Via Con Dios,Marine.How about we set-up a little account to keep Broadhead6(me like)stocked-up on the non-essential essentials,and maybe help his family out a little bit to.I can't kick in much,but I will certainly do what I can.
Watch your 6,Bro.
#22
I kinda thought that "Jarhead" would have been anonymous enough, unless they're sending over _one_ Marine to take care of the problem on the Syrian border.
(Sorta like the old Texas Rangers... one crisis, one Jarhead).
Anyway, happy hunting, don't get shot, etc...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/06/2005 13:26 Comments ||
Top||
#23
ex-JH, Broadhead6,
Thanks for serving. Stay vigilant, stay safe, and Godspeed. Our prayers are with you.
I've got a special issue olive drab t-shirt for you that makes a real statement. Meets regs for color. Let Fred know that he's ok to give me your contact info and we'll fix you up.
#27
Best wishes, stay safe, take care of your men (I know that's first on your mind) and come home to us. And tell us if you need us to do anything here stateside that will help you.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/06/2005 14:47 Comments ||
Top||
#28
Watch your six Jarhead. We'll be thinking of you and all your fellow devil dogs. Let us know if there is anything that you, your family or your fellows need and we will make it happen. And thanks for your service. I think I can speak for all of the RB regulars when I say that we are mighty proud of you.
#37
God speed, Jarhead!
Good hunting and come back home to us safe and sound.
We'll be praying for your protection and strength.
Thank you for your service to our country.
#38
BH6: My best advice is to have fun. There are lots of guys out there who can write both play-by-play and color. So try to take it beyond that. Try to catch the funny edge of things in your writing. Not all life is business.
Ask your buds what music they listen to, and why.
What do they want to do "when they grow up?"
What are the funny stories and jokes floating around?
Have an "ugliest dude in the platoon" contest.
Do surveys. Military food vs. local food. Odd local customs. Strange critters (What a donkey is really like). The stupidest thing they've seen somebody do.
Odds are that some of the guys are pretty good artists--so ask them for artwork. Digital photos speak volumes, and written drawings are instant classics (granted they might have to be mailed home and scanned.)
Writing like this is the dessert to the meat-and-potatoes stuff that writes itself. But it really adds a 3rd dimension for the folks back home.
#46
Jarhead, I will light a candle for you at my Chesty Puller shrine ;-) May the Marine ghosts of Guadalcanal watch over you. If you're in a pinch, just yell out "Raiders, rally to me!" - Merritt Edson and the boys - they'll come brawling.
#52
You've become kinda my own special Marine, since mine is one of those either setting a perimeter for God, or walking his streets. He knew the Marines needed to do something about Saddam, and it came to be his daily wish. He watched that build-up late in 1990.
On the day of his funeral, I walked back into my house to Bush I announcing, "We are bombing Iraq." I've always thought, with Bush II, this was my Marine's war, one he had wanted years ago.
So, knowing how he would feel about your mission, and about you, stay close, let us know how you are. Lots of us are claiming you as "my marine." Keep us posted, we want to know what you need, and more, what would really be on a "wish list" that doesn't included necessities.
#53
Bag a few for your Rantburg pals, Jarhead. Take care.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/06/2005 23:19 Comments ||
Top||
#54
BH6, Stay safe, and thank you. Will look forward to your posts.
Am very glad to hear about fortifying these border forts. It's terrible how the Iraqi's can be bought. Would love to see the sensors.
Posted by: Jan ||
09/06/2005 23:19 Comments ||
Top||
#55
JH/BH6---Stay safe, watch your six. And don't take any flying leaps at portable toilets to knock them over with the occupants inside. We have plenty of video shots of that activity, thank ye verry much, heh heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/06/2005 23:25 Comments ||
Top||
Unable to suppress a barrage of machine gun and rocket propelled grenade fire from insurgents holed up in a armory mosque in the Sarai district of Tal Afar, Iraq, coalition forces called in helicopter gunships to stop the enemy salvo, Multinational Force Iraq officials reported today. Seven terrorists were killed in the Sept. 4 helicopter counterattack at a mosque in eastern Tal Afar described as a Takfirist meeting place. No injuries to U.S. personnel were reported, officials noted.
When Iraqi police recently moved in to search a black car with two men inside that they'd stopped at a checkpoint, they found a wounded insurgent and another terrorist trying to eat a note that described an attack on a coalition forces' forward operating base, officials said. The car was also loaded with alleged!
bomb-making materials, including five telephone receivers, six radios, two cell phones, one wired to a radio, six washing machine timers, five extended-range antennae and batteries. The men also had $1,400 in $100 U.S. bills, according to officials. We wuz goin' to da electronics repair shop! Allan dis stuff is busted!
The Iraqi police and {US} soldiers made the discovery after hastily setting up a traffic checkpoint to search cars coming from the direction of automatic-weapons fire. The Task Force Baghdad soldiers were conducting security operations north of Baghdad when they joined with Iraqi police in capturing the terrorists, officials said. The wounded terrorist was taken to a hospital for treatment. Both men were detained for further questioning.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/06/2005 08:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I just saw a documentary called Super Dollar, a counterfeiting ring they have partially busted. These near perfect dollars are printed in NK, sent via diplomatic courier to Moscow, where ex-KGB agents distribute it through the Russian Mafia. They get it to Dublin, where the IRA distributes it through various channels in the UK, particularly ttheir great banking and financial institutions. Only a few were actually arrested and prosecuted but the Secret Service was concerned that these bogus bills continue to finance terrorism and few can detect them by eye. The colored paper and green ink stain are duplicated and some have even thought they are printed on an official US printing press, of which Goss Printing has been the sole manufacturer of. At one time, Iran was thought to be in possession of one...perhaps that was the payment for their missile technology to Kim? The film said they frequently mixed the real and bogus bills and no one but a few key players knew it or even exactly what was going on. Has anyone checked to see if any of this recovered money is legit?
The U.S. Army handed over its base in Najaf on Tuesday, giving Iraqis full control of the city as a first step in transferring security across the country so multinational forces can begin to go home someday. Lt. Col. James Oliver, the U.S. commander of Forward Operating Base Hotel, handed the ceremonial keys to the installation to the new Iraqi commander, Col. Saadi Salih al-Maliky. About 1,500 Iraqi soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 8th Division marched by. Before the ceremony, the Iraqi soldiers, all Shiites, chanted "long live Sistani," referring to top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and "Saddam is a coward."
U.S. forces have relocated to another base farther outside the city so they would be available to assist in a major security crisis.
Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, is the holiest city in Iraq for Shiite Muslims and was the scene of heavy fighting last year between the U.S. Army and the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The fighting ended following a truce mediated by the city's Shiite clerical hierarchy, which wields considerable power behind the scenes in the current Shiite-dominated national government.
The U.S.-led coalition plans to hand over control of other cities to the Iraqis, gradually reducing its security profile. If all goes according to plan, this would enable the United States and its international partners to begin drawing down their troops next year and focusing on the insurgency-ridden Sunni Arab areas to the north.
"This is indeed a very important day for the province of Najaf," said Brig. Gen. Augustus L. Collins, commander of the 155th Brigade Combat Team. "It gives me great pleasure to say the Iraqi army in Najaf can control the area. Although we are transferring authority at this FOB (forward operating base), we will still be here to help the people of Najaf."
Oliver said the transfer was a "visible sign that the people of Najaf have rejected violence and have trust in their elected government." "This is only the beginning for Najaf," he said. "The Iraqi army is operating successfully throughout the region. They are fully independent and capable of responding to all security needs. We are now here in a strictly advisory mode."
Gov. Asaad Sultan Attai thanked the American people "and its army" for ousting Saddam Hussein and for "their assistance since then."
Posted by: ed ||
09/06/2005 07:08 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
he American military recently moved into this small town 10 miles south of Falluja, one of the most violent locales in Iraq, to secure it for the coming elections, and the insurgents took all of a day to respond. They fired a rocket that missed the Americans and landed instead in a nearby playground, killing a 12-year-old boy and wounding eight other children.
"We were playing football," Ahmed Hamad Ali, also 12, said from his hospital bed the next day. "They made a big bombing."
Some residents are directing their anger not at the insurgents but at the marines, whose arrival, they say, drew the attack.
"They are like two people chasing each other," Baha Abbod, 28, a teacher.
It is hardly an unknown reaction in Iraq, where many civilians have been killed and wounded in cross-fire. But the military is bracing for a surge of situations like this one as American and Iraqi forces race to establish security for the referendum on the new Iraqi constitution to be held on Oct. 15.
"Security preparations in support of the referendum are under way throughout Iraq," said Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, a military spokesman in Baghdad.
The Marine operation was created to re-establish the presence of the Iraqi police in this town and a nearby village, Ameriya, which sits on the Euphrates River south of Falluja. The area is dominated by Sunni Arabs, who have balked at joining the Kurds and most Shiite factions in accepting the proposed constitution.
Faris and Ameriya have been without police officers since February, when the police force collapsed in the face of withering attacks by insurgents, who then used the communities as safe havens from which to mount their attacks, Marine officers said, and to intimidate civilians.
The roads from Falluja to Faris are pockmarked by craters left by makeshift bombs - improvised explosive devices, in military jargon - and on the wall at one checkpoint a scrawl in black paint urges American troops to stay alert: "Someone out there wants to kill you. Are you going to give them the chance?"
A few minutes after driving past the sign, Sgt. Tim Lawson, 24, from Shaver Lake, Calif., swerved his armored Humvee onto the shoulder as he pointed across the road to an upturned chunk of asphalt. "There's a possible I.E.D. there," he said.
Faris started out as a planned community built in the 1980's to house 30,000 engineers and others who worked in nearby munitions factories; those have been converted to construction facilities.
The marines set up headquarters in an abandoned building here and in a new house in Ameriya. For a few days they worked with no air-conditioning in 115-degree heat, with little running water and exposure to higher buildings nearby. They surrounded their buildings with giant dirt-filled wire mesh containers called Hescos and posted lookouts on the roofs.
A contingent of newly trained Iraqi troops is with the marines, building patrol experience, and they appeared poised and enthusiastic in their new uniforms and American-made body armor.
"Psst," Mustafa Kamil, 24, one of the Iraqi team leaders, said to another soldier as they moved through Ameriya in a staggered formation. "Replace me here, quickly."
He was a soldier in Saddam Hussein's army, earning about $2 a month in dinars, and after a spell cleaning streets during the start of the war, he joined the new Iraqi Army in April of last year. As an officer, he earns more than $300 a month.
He said he worried that the 24 Iraqi soldiers who had arrived in Ameriya would not be able to hold the area when the marines left. Ultimately, the marines say, they want to turn these communities over to the Iraqi police, who may face the greatest danger. Perhaps as a warning, insurgents bombed the empty police station in Ameriya.
The marines say they feel welcome in Faris and Ameriya, compared with the hostility they sensed in some other Iraqi locales where they established camps. Cpl. Brian Andrews, 24, from Austin, Tex., said the townsfolk were "very accepting of the coalition forces, at least to the naked eye."
But the rocket attack, which struck on the last weekend of August, devastated many in Faris.
Younis H. Johan, assistant director of the town's hospital, said the rocket had killed Omar Muaid, 12, whose chest and abdomen had been ripped open by the blast. He died 10 minutes after arriving at the hospital. Eight others were wounded, four of them significantly, Mr. Johan said.
"We had casualties before, but during the last month, when U.S. troops came to the area, there has started to be more," he said. "I expect a rise, pressure on the hospital."
Mr. Abbod, the teacher, says that residents who have family elsewhere will leave until the situation improves, and that even some grim places now seem attractive. His neighbor, he said, has gone to Falluja.
At the town's hospital on Aug. 29 , a Marine captain visited one of the boys wounded in the attack and vowed to find the insurgents who had fired the rocket. But as the boy's father, Qutaiba Fajir, 42, a officer in the Iraqi Army, watched the Marine officer walk from the room, he said, "We hope they leave."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/06/2005 00:45 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
New York Times.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/06/2005 7:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"We hope they leave."
Yup. Get rid of the sheepdogs. Then the wolves will be sure to leave you alone. (see Whittle's latest essay)
U.S. and Afghan forces killed 13 suspected Taliban fighters, and captured dozens more, in a remote area where a political candidate was kidnapped and executed last week, a provincial governor said Monday. U.S. and Afghan troops dropped by parachute from American aircraft in the operation, which began Sunday, Gov. Assadullah Khalid said by telephone from Kandahar, the capital of the province of the same name. None of the allied forces was injured.
This qualifies as a combat drop for the airborne guys, right?
The airborne assault targeted insurgents suspected of killing Khan Mohammed, a candidate for Kandahar's provincial council in the nation's Sept. 18 elections who had been abducted Friday, the governor added.
At least four other candidates have been killed in the weeks before the elections for the lower house of Afghanistan's parliament and provincial councils. It is the first vote for parliament since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban's hard-line Islamic regime in late 2001.
Backed by U.S. attack helicopters, the American and Afghan troops, and local police, landed Sunday in the remote Lal valley, about 50 miles northwest of Kandahar, the governor said. More than 40 suspected insurgents were detained. They are being interrogated, U.S. Col. Jim Yonts, spokesman for the coalition forces, told reporters in Kabul, the Afghan capital. Khalid said some might be released soon, while the rest will be put on trial as Taliban militants.
"I think this was a group that was hiding and getting ready to conduct operations to bring chaos to the process of the elections in Afghanistan, so this (assault) will decrease the danger of the Taliban insurgency," the governor added.
Yonts denied there was any link between the offensive, which is still under way, and Friday's kidnappings and executions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/06/2005 00:30 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The Iraqi wing of al Qaeda said it had launched Monday's attack on the interior ministry in Baghdad, according to an Internet statement. "Your brothers set off from five directions and used a variety of weapons to launch a blessed raid on the interior ministry building, killing everyone inside," the al Qaeda Organization in Iraq said in a statement.
The statement was posted on an Islamist Web site often used by the group. It could not be authenticated. Up to 30 gunmen in 10 cars fired on the ministry building at dawn, killing two policemen and wounding five in what appeared to be a carefully coordinated attack on a sensitive target, Iraqi officials said. The attack came at the start of campaigning for an October referendum on a new constitution.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/06/2005 00:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Killed everyone inside", they said? At dawn? Too bad government workers don't show up until 9:00. But once again, they had to run away before they could count how many were included in "all".
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/06/2005 15:08 Comments ||
Top||
Security was tightened at the Lucknow railway stations on Monday after a letter, purportedly from Al-Qaeda, claimed that mines and other explosives have been planted at one of the stations, a top official said. Principal Secretary, Home, Alok Sinha told reporters that bomb disposal squads are on the lookout for any possible explosives at the Charbagh railway station where security was beefed up. He said the letter claiming that explosives have been planted at Charbagh station was received by the Divisional Manager of North-Eastern Railway on Monday. "Security at all railway stations including Charbagh had been tightened as a precautionary measure though the letter appears to be bogus and meant to create panic," he said.
Sinha said bomb disposal squads had been scouring the Charbagh station premises since 1400 hours Monday but no explosives had been recovered till evening. He said that the Special Task Force was entrusted with the responsibility of finding the origin of the letter written on a plain paper and mentioned the name of one Mohammad Ahmed who claimed to be the "area commander" of Al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/06/2005 00:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
One terror suspect sold Islamic CDs and DVDs at flea markets. Another worked at a hamburger joint, blending into a country whose porous borders, easy money-laundering and passports for sale have created a popular hideout for international fugitives.
The arrests of the two â a U.S. embassy bomber and a man accused of plotting to set up a militant training camp in the United States â have authorities investigating whether al-Qaeda members are using southern Africa as a base to raise funds, recruit supporters and provide logistical support for global attacks.
Members of South Africa's security forces and some government leaders warn the region must step up anti-terror vigilance or it could become a target itself â much like Britain, accused of ignoring the danger of letting militants base themselves there prior to the July 7 mass-transit suicide bombings by homegrown Muslim radicals.
"There are groups in Africa that claim to be part of al-Qaeda and other structures, and here in southern Africa they have been discovered seeking refuge and quite possibly attempting to set up networks," South Africa's Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said this week.
Kasrils, addressing a Navy symposium, said Africa's busy sea lanes and harbors were vulnerable with much of the world's oil and other cargo moving through the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, along the Mozambique Channel, around the Cape of Good Hope and through the Straits of Gibraltar. Other possible targets include U.S. and other embassies, international corporations, major hotels, shopping complexes and sports stadiums.
"It is not something that we would consider an imminent threat or danger, but we have to be vigilant," South African government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe told The Associated Press. "No country would want to be seen as a base for terrorism."
While it's difficult to assess the extent to which Islamic radicals may have penetrated southern Africa, the region is attractive as a base and largely off the security radar as pressure mounts on al-Qaeda and its associates in northern and eastern Africa.
Wanted Islamic militant foreigners like Aswat and Mohamed can easily blend into South Africa's significant Muslim minority â 2 percent of its 45 million people.
The country also has modern banks, good roads, airlines and telecommunications â all useful for planning attacks. And long stretches of unpatrolled borders and government corruption provide opportunities to bypass immigration controls, launder money and illegally get materials.
Officials here have acknowledged that al-Qaeda militants and their associates traveling through Europe have obtained South African passports, which allow travel to many African countries and Britain without visas. U.S. and Mozambique officials have also looked into whether al-Qaeda is laundering money through the Indian Ocean nation.
Southern Africa has syndicates dealing in everything from counterfeit goods and credit-card fraud to trafficking of guns, gems and narcotics â all potential revenue sources now that traditional avenues of terror funding are being shut down.
"Is there a formal structure of al-Qaeda here? Probably not," said Kurt Shillinger, who heads the South African Institute of International Affairs' terrorism project. "Are there elements of al-Qaeda? Probably."
Shillinger said he would be surprised if such elements unleashed attacks here, however, given how useful South Africa can be as a support base.
In July, authorities in Zambia captured and deported to Britain Haroon Rashid Aswat, accused of plotting to set up a camp in Bly, Oregon in 1999 to train militants to fight in Afghanistan. Investigators said the Briton of Indian descent also spent time in South Africa and made trips to Botswana and Mozambique before his arrest.
Aswat denies he is a terrorist, but Zambian investigators said he told them he was a bodyguard for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Investigators also questioned him about the July 7 bombings, but London police have discounted any connection.
Aswat, who has family in Johannesburg, supported himself here by selling Islamic CDs and DVDs at flea markets, according to Ahmed al-Arine, a Jordanian immigrant who worked for him. But that is unlikely to explain â or finance â the amount of traveling he did.
In 1999, Khalfan Khamis Mohamed was arrested in Cape Town and deported to the United States; he is now jailed for life for his role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. The Tanzanian had entered South Africa under an alias, got a temporary residency permit, and worked at a hamburger place for months until he tried to renew his permit and got caught.
Netshitenzhe acknowledged the presence of the two major suspects raises questions but said their arrests show local security forces are working well with their international counterparts to fight terrorism. The government spokesman said terrorism "is a silent menace" fought mostly behind the scenes.
Aswat was closely monitored before his arrest, investigators said.
Last year, South Africa also deported two Egyptian brothers, one with asylum status in Britain, and two Jordanians after questioning them about a suspected plot to launch attacks during the 2004 South African election. No charges were brought.
But the government has shown little desire to investigate its own Muslim community, in part because it does not want to alienate it, said Shillinger, the analyst.
A handful of South Africa's Muslims, who are of Pakistani, Indian and Malaysian descent, are believed to have fought in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Hamas and Hezbollah may also have been active here since the 1990s, said the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.
Two South Africans were arrested in the Pakistan city of Gujarat last year in a gun battle that netted Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian al-Qaeda suspect in the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa. Both men were released without charge, their link to Ghailani never explained.
Most Muslims in South Africa are moderates and embrace their government's vision of multicultural democracy after the oppression of apartheid.
"As South Africans, we wouldn't want this young democracy to be damaged by irresponsible people, whether they come with Muslim names or non-Muslim names," said Moulana Ihsaan Hendriks, of the Muslim Judicial Council.
However, the community includes a small number of radicals. Members of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, a vigilante group, were blamed for a series of 1998-2000 bombings that killed three people and injured scores of others â accusations the group denies. Targets included police stations and courts, a Planet Hollywood restaurant and the Cape Town airport.
Hussein Solomon, a security expert at the University of Pretoria and a Muslim, said anti-Western rhetoric is spread by some mosques and religious schools. He said he got two death threats after inviting the U.S. ambassador to a conference on terrorism.
"Hate is being inculcated," he said. "Something has to be done, or we are going to be facing a major problem here."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/06/2005 00:06 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And here I thought SA was a haven for progressive, liberal, forward-thinking ideas and peaceful pacifistic people who had been oppressed by whitey.
Posted by: Chris W. ||
09/06/2005 9:27 Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Hate is being inculcated," he said. "Something has to be done, or we are going to be facing a major problem here."
Going to? How about NOW?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/06/2005 11:44 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Leave those poor people in peace. They need something to occupy themselves with until they die of AIDS-related infections. :-(
BAGHDAD - Two British soldiers and at least 16 Iraqis were killed in attacks across Iraq. The two British soldiers died in a roadside bombing near Basra in southern Iraq, an area relatively free of the deadly insurgency that has gripped much of the country since Saddam was deposed in April 2003.
The attack was claimed in a statement on an Islamist website by the Al Qaeda linked group of Iraqâs most-wanted man, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. âYour brothers in the military branch of the Organisation of Al Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers detonated a device near a British crusadersâ patrol in Basra province, destroying a military Jeep and killing two,â said the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
The Lions of Islam⢠skulk about and set off a bomb.
Altogether 94 British personnel have died in Iraq, according to the ministry of defence in London.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/06/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Three armed groups affiliated to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbasâ ruling Fatah party yesterday flouted calls to disarm after Israel completes its pullout from the occupied Gaza Strip. âWe cannot allow anyone to destroy our happiness in our victory. We reject having any Israeli remain at the Rafah border crossing and we cannot allow Gaza to be under siege,â said a joint statement sent to AFP.
âResistance is legal and there is no question that if the occupation continues we cannot let our weapons go at any price,â added the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Abu Rish Brigades and the Fatah Falcons. They vowed that the resistance would continue until Israel released all Palestinian prisoners, allowed all refugees and Palestinian exiles to return and Jerusalem was âforeverâ the capital of a Palestinian state. The groups also urged Arab and Muslim states not to open relations with Israel after Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri met his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom last week. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has already made clear that it would not disarm after Israel leaves the Gaza Strip following a warning last week from the interior ministry that armed groups would not be tolerated.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Looking at the picture I can't help thinking how easy it would be for a good sniper to hit one of those "Dynamite" sticks.
I see it this way, if real, no more boomers as the blast would set off his boomer buddies right and left.
If fake, a really nasty belly wound, and trying to explain why the "Dynamite" didn't go off.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/06/2005 16:48 Comments ||
Top||
At least 16 people were injured when hundreds of unemployed Palestinian men and teenagers clashed with security forces yesterday in the second day of violent protests in the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of protesters ran amok in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, denouncing the Palestinian Authority for failing to provide them with jobs and for charging them tuition at state schools.
Men and teenagers, in light blue school uniforms, hurled concrete, fire bombs and metal bars at riot police near Khan Yunisâ municipal building and police station. They set tires on fire and ripped down an electricity transformer, some sped by on bicycles and pedaled fast when police chased them on foot through the streetâs detritus of rocks, bricks, glass and melted rubber.
Sixteen people were taken to hospital with injuries sustained in the fracas, including five policemen and 11 civilians hurt by stone throwers, Palestinian security sources said. At least 200 helmeted riot police and national security officers battled to disperse the crowd, firing a bevy of warning shots into the air before the protesters charged back chanting âweâre fighting for our bread.â
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I thought everything was supposed to be okay now, Israel is out. Oh, you mean, that wasn't the real problem? Good luck with the approach you are taking. We're about to see a 'society' destroy iteslf.
SRINAGAR: Suspected rebels hurled a grenade on a busy road in Indian-held Kashmir on Monday, wounding about a dozen people, police said, hours before the start of talks between Kashmiri separatists and the Indian prime minister. The attack took place in Shopian town, south of Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state. No militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, which police said was aimed at an army patrol but exploded on the street instead.
I had a minor accident in my back yard a couple or three weeks ago. My peach tree was struck by lightening, as coincidence would have it when the branches were heavy with fruit not quite ready to be picked. I took the chain saw and cut the remains of the tree down, tossing the big chunks into the woods. That left me with a couple hundred peaches lying around the yard, which brought to mind the Kashmir Krazed Killer Korps.
Since my house backs to the woods, I tried a minor experiment â a random fruit-flavored grenade toss. Pretending each of the peaches in the yard was a grenade, I picked them up one by one and tossed them at the "target area" in the woods, which was a brush pile. To hit the target, the "grenade" had to go through the gate, to the left of the trunk of a willow tree, to the right of the corner of the shed, high enough to clear the back of a bench, and low enough not to be deflected by the willow branches.
Fully 80 percent of my "grenades" landed in the target area, accuracy improving as my arm loosened up, then deteriorating again as antique joints began complaining. Yet in Kashmir, fully 90 percent (possibly more) of grenades miss the "intended" target and shred innocent bystanders. I haven't researched it thoroughly, but I can't recall a grenade incident in Kashmir where there haven't been innocent bystanders.
[Pauses to puff ruminatively on battered, reeking pipe. Burns another hole in smoking jacket. Plays a few bars of "Minnie the Moocher" on saxophone.]
You don't think, do you, that the target in all these grenade attacks might actually be the innocent bystanders?
Naw. That couldn't be it.
Obviously you weren't trained by Hek.
Anyone in Pakistan with a good arm is busy playing international cricket. The rest of them grew up kicking a soccer ball around and haven't grasped the infidel concept of "throwing".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Were you throwing baseball-style, Fred? You are, after all, an American. How would you do, I wonder, if you threw a peach as if it were a cricket ball, which I imagine is the preferred style in that former British colony.
#5
[Pauses to puff ruminatively on battered, reeking pipe. Burns another hole in smoking jacket. Plays a few bars of "Minnie the Moocher" on saxophone.]
gawd i can picture it. »»:>
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/06/2005 22:37 Comments ||
Top||
Three people died and three were wounded on Monday when a tribesman fired at administration officials trying to confiscate his Kalashnikov rifle in a town near the Afghan border, government sources said. Miranshah political Tehsildar Iftikhar Ahmed Khattak, Moharir Ali Amroz and tribal policeman Dil Muhammad were gunned down in Miranshahâs crowded bazaar, Razmak Adda, a senior administration official told Daily Times. Ali died at the scene while Iftikhar and Dil Muhammad were pronounced dead in hospital. A policeman and two passers-by were also injured, he said. The gunman fled after the incident. After the killings, authorities have ordered to âshoot at sightâ if anyone is seen with weapons in the Miranshah Bazaar, the official said. Political Agent Tariq Hayat and Tochi Scouts Commandant Waheed Bangash declared that armed persons in Miranshah Bazaar would be shot at sight from today onward. âAnnouncements were made by loudspeakers warning tribesmen against carrying weapons in public,â eyewitnesses said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/06/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
Islamic militants battled Saudi special forces for a third day Tuesday in a seafront district of this eastern city, with the extremists appearing to be determined to fight to their last bullet. Three militants and two police officers were killed in the early hours Tuesday, a security official said in Riyadh, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A Saudi police officer was killed yesterday in an exchange of fire as the siege by Saudi security forces of suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists entered its second day. An officer shot in the siege yesterday has since died of his wounds. The militant who was shot and wounded yesterday outside a supermarket early on in the incident has also died.
A Yemeni court has accused 36 suspected rebels from the country's Zaidi minority of plotting to kill President Ali Abd Allah Salih. Adding to a catalogue of alleged crimes for which the 36 are on trial, prosecutor Said al-Aqil told a Sanaa court that the accused had also planned to kill high-ranking army officers. The defendants, eight of whom are being tried in absentia, are accused of carrying out a spate of attacks on soldiers and military vehicles in Sanaa in recent months, in which one officer was killed and 27 other people rounded. 
Suspected rebels dynamited four energy pylons Monday, leaving more than 2.3 million people in southwestern Colombia without electricity. Energy officials were scrambling to find a temporary fix while the army secured the area so crews could repair the downed towers, Mines and Energy Minister Luis Ernesto Mejia said. Authorities believe Colombia's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was responsible, an army official said.
A suspected terrorist extradited from Kazakhstan to Russia has links with al-Qaeda, a spokesman for Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday. Sergei Ignatchenko said 
UN investigators probing the death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri have uncovered leads in Beirut that point to high-level involvement in the plot to kill him, a report said yesterday. Der Spiegel weekly news magazine said the arrest of four allies of pro-Syrian President 
Three powerful bombs exploded in Dadu, Sukkur and Nawabshah on Tuesday night, but no casualties were reported. In Dadu, a powerful bomb went off in front of National Bank near New Chowk, shattering windowpanes of nearby buildings and damaging a car. After initial investigations, the police concluded that the blast had occurred due to a firecracker. Another bomb exploded in Nawabshah on Skrind Road near a branch of National Bank, leaving its windows smashed. The police cordoned off the area. No one was arrested.
Top Khulna terror killed in encounter
Unable to suppress a barrage of machine gun and rocket propelled grenade fire from insurgents holed up in a 
U.S. and Afghan forces killed 13 suspected Taliban fighters, and captured dozens more, in a remote area where a political candidate was kidnapped and executed last week, a provincial governor said Monday. U.S. and Afghan troops dropped by parachute from American aircraft in the operation, which began Sunday, Gov. Assadullah Khalid said by telephone from Kandahar, the capital of the province of the same name. None of the allied forces was injured.
The Iraqi wing of al Qaeda said it had launched Monday's attack on the interior ministry in Baghdad, according to an Internet statement. "Your brothers set off from five directions and used a variety of weapons to launch a blessed raid on the interior ministry building, killing everyone inside," the al Qaeda Organization in Iraq said in a statement.
Three armed groups affiliated to Palestinian leader 
At least 16 people were injured when hundreds of unemployed Palestinian men and teenagers clashed with security forces yesterday in the second day of violent protests in the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of protesters ran amok in 
SRINAGAR: Suspected rebels hurled a grenade on a busy road in Indian-held Kashmir on Monday, wounding about a dozen people, police said, hours before the start of talks between Kashmiri separatists and the Indian prime minister. The attack took place in Shopian town, south of Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state. No militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, which police said was aimed at an army patrol but exploded on the street instead. 
Three people died and three were wounded on Monday when a tribesman fired at administration officials trying to confiscate his Kalashnikov rifle in a town near the Afghan border, government sources said. Miranshah political Tehsildar Iftikhar Ahmed Khattak, Moharir Ali Amroz and tribal policeman Dil Muhammad were gunned down in Miranshahâs crowded bazaar, Razmak Adda, a senior administration official told Daily Times. Ali died at the scene while Iftikhar and Dil Muhammad were pronounced dead in hospital. A policeman and two passers-by were also injured, he said. The gunman fled after the incident. After the killings, authorities have ordered to âshoot at sightâ if anyone is seen with weapons in the Miranshah Bazaar, the official said. Political Agent Tariq Hayat and Tochi Scouts Commandant Waheed Bangash declared that armed persons in Miranshah Bazaar would be shot at sight from today onward. âAnnouncements were made by loudspeakers warning tribesmen against carrying weapons in public,â eyewitnesses said.
