The Afghan government (What a nice phrase!) has begun preparing a new national army. Mujahedin commander Atta Mohammad said that troops would be volunteers, effectively ending the long-standing practice of forcing men and boys to fight. Professional military officers have been appointed to assist Army Chief General Asif Dilawar who is heading a commission charged with establishing the force. Here's hoping the new army adopts the American and British tradition of loyalty to the government and non-involvement with politics. Certainly they should be busy enough cleaning up the detritus left behind from the late festivities.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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Anti-Taliban forces detained a top commander in eastern Afghanistan for alleged ties to al-Qaida. Awal Gul, who played a key role in persuading Taliban commanders to surrender Nangarhar province to a council of tribal leaders, was arrested. Cleanup starting. Should be more in days and weeks to come. This one is relatively small fry.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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A preliminary examination of "Reid's" black suede athletic shoes revealed four to five ounces of explosive packed into each one. Because of the complexity of concocting such an explosive, FBI technicians believe that Reid must have had an accomplice. The type of explosive used usually needs a battery or blasting cap to set it off but FBI tests found a substance had been added that would have allowed it to be detonated by prolonged exposure to flame. Vicious little beast, isn't he? Hope they're not done hitting him yet.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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A report in the French La Provence newspaper said Maxwell Smart "Richard Reid" had belonged to an Islamic movement called Tabliq but left because it was "not radical enough" for him. Reports that Reid was the son of a Jamaican father and a British mother were apparently true. Reid was apparently known to British police for petty theft; it is still not clear where the man lived. An even more pressing question is, "Where do they get these people?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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Speaking on the 125th birthday of Pakistan's founding father, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, President Pervez Musharraf reminded Pakistan of Jinnah's moderate views and called on his countrymen to reject extremism. "We have undermined Islam to a level that people of the world associate it with illiteracy, backwardness, intolerance," admitted Musharraf. "Leave aside tolerating other religions. We refuse to accommodate views of various sects in our own religion." Thank you. And Merry Christmas to you, too. Really, you should try it - it's not that hard, and it really is fun. Repeat after us: Sec-u-lar State.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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The Indian government says it has broken up 101 ISI cells and defeated several covert designs by the ISI throughout the country. The major cases include the exposure of the Lashkar-e-Taiba network in India, the Chittisinghpora massacre, serial bomb blasts by Deendar Anjuman in churches of South India, the attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and the Lashkar-e-Taiba attempt to bomb the Hanumangarhi Temple at Ayodhya.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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Pakistan has redeployed its strategic units in the forward areas of the International Border and the Line of Control in Jammu and Poonch sectors. It has deployed medium range ballistic missiles batteries (MRBBs) in these sectors in an action that will further escalate tension. To counter this aggressive posturing, the Indian forces have accelerated mine-laying operations in many sectors. Villagers have started sending children and women to safer locations along with their valuables and household goods. Pakistani forces had engaged in heavy mortar and small arms fire all through the day and overnight. Indian security forces claimed they had killed 25 Pakistani soldiers in the last two days in retaliatory gunfire across the Kashmir border. Pakistan is willing to go to war rather than clean up Lashkar-e-Taiba? That doesn't make any sense. What're we missing here?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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Somalia's transitional administration and representatives of rival factions signed a peace accord paving the way for a national unity government, but key leaders in the armed opposition immediately rejected it. The agreement called for the formation within a month of "an all-inclusive government ensuring equitable power-sharing amongst all the Somali clans", as well as disarmament under UN auspices. They agreed "to renounce violence as a means of settling political differences and to ensure cooperation with the international community in the eradication of terrorism." But Hassan Mohamed Nur "Shatigudud", head of the Rahanwein Resistance Army and co-president of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council, immediately said his coalition took no part in the talks leading to the accord. Shatigudud's co-president Hussein Mohamed Aidid, whose faction controls part of the capital Mogadishu, said: "We reject it completely." You're not taking this seriously, boys. Read the papers.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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An Israeli soldier was killed and four others wounded when assailants opened fire on an Israeli border patrol in the worst clash in decades along the normally calm Israel-Jordan border. Israeli helicopters raked the border area with machine-gun fire, and plumes of smoke rose from the heavily wooded border area as Israelis looked for the gunmen. The area was sealed off for hours as the Israelis searched for the assailants. Israeli soldiers later found bodies of two gunmen on the Israeli side of the Jordan River but outside the border fence. Nice attempt to extend the conflict to include the Jordanians. Doesn't appear to have worked, though.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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Chechen warlord Salman Raduyev was sentenced to life imprisonment for a hostage-taking of several thousand people in 1996 in the Russian republic of Dagestan. Raduyev rose to prominence with the operation, in which 3,000 people were seized in the Dagestani town of Kizlyar. 200 people -- including 78 Russian soldiers -- are estimated to have been killed in the fighting. These are the guys the NY Times and Washington Post described as "freedom fighters" and condemned the Russians for trying to wipe out.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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In a major operation against militants in the Kashmir valley, Indian security forces gunned down five militants belonging to Laskhar-e-Taiba in two separate encounters.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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Turkey's parliament extended for six months the mandate allowing U.S. and British warplanes to patrol the no-fly zone in northern Iraq as fears mounted that Washington could next target Iraq in its war on terrorism. Maintain pressure on them, but don't expend the resources on Iraq now that could be used other places. Iraq isn't a fundo problem; Yemen, Somalia and Chechnya are.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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Yemen has expanded its search for backers of al Qaeda and arrested militants belonging to other factions. Authorities have arrested a number of suspects from hard-line organizations, an official said without providing further details. The death toll from a clash last week between security forces and the militants and their tribal hosts rose to 24 troops after six wounded soldiers died in hospital. Officials said there had been no violent encounters since then and the government has won pledges from tribal chiefs for cooperation.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/25/2001 ||
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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.
