Translated from Spanish, published 2-22-05. Two Soldiers Dead and Seven Injured by Mines in Teorama (North of Santander)
Last night, an engagement between the Army and members of FARC in Sucre traded three soldiers and one guerrilla dead. General Carlos Alberto Ospine, commander of the Armed Forces, stated that near the municipality of Teorama, vigorous operations against FARC rebels were being undertaken and during an attack, the troops entered a field sown with antipersonnel mines. A second lieutenant, identified as Leandro Perez Castro and a soldier Lisimaco Suarez, members of the V Military Brigade were killed instantly, while seven soldiers were injured, three of them gravely.
Three Soldiers and One Guerrilla Dead in Sucre The engagement took place last night, when troops tried to neutralize an illegal roadblock on the highway that connects Ovejas with Sincelejo. The following was related by Colonel Rafael Colon, commander of the First Brigade of Marine Infantry: "A group of FARC Guerrillas were attempting to maintain a presence on the highway [a roadblock; Spanish like Arabic often tries to talk around the subject] and were confronted by members of the infantry battalion. During this fight, three of our men were murdered and others were injured, fortunately none seriously" stated the official in a radio transmission. According to Colon, the soldiers recovered a rebel corpse that also had perished in combat. "We are continuing with operations in this zone, with the goal of neutralizing the actions of the terrorists that are seeking to operate on the margins of the law," added the military chief.
Government soldiers killed eight rebels and discovered a large cache of weapons in dense jungles of southern Colombia, a top military official said Tuesday. Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina, the chief of the Colombian Armed Forces, called the rebel weapons seizure - which included machine guns and grenade launchers - one of the biggest since a military offensive began in the southern jungles more than a year ago. The most recent clashes took place over the past two days in an isolated region of Guaviare state, 210 miles south of Bogota. They came in response to rebel attacks that have surged since Feb. 1 and left more than 60 soldiers dead, Ospina said. He said government forces suffered no casualties in the latest fighting.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2005 1:12:08 AM ||
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More, including a nice picture of him and Basayev, at the link.
A message circulated among jihadist e-groups on February 22, 2005 provides information about the martyrdom of Abu Omar al-Kuwaiti in Chechnya and his ties to al-Qaeda. A leader of military operations in Chechnya and an associate of Chechen commander, Shamel Basayev, Abu Omar, according to the message, trained in Afghanistan at the al-Qaeda training camp, al-Farooq and later fought in both Bosnia and Chechnya.
The message claims that Abu Omar led the terrorist attack on the Ministry of the Interior in Ingueshetia in the summer of 2004 as well as the Beslan School attack of September 2004.
This article starring:
ABU OMAR AL KUWAITI
al-Qaeda
SHAMEL BASAIEV
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/23/2005 1:37:05 AM ||
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#1
Love the beards. Must be jihadi high fashion.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/23/2005 16:26 Comments ||
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#2
Now he's Abu Omar al-Deadguy.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2005 21:54 Comments ||
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Nine Russian soldiers died and three were injured near Chechnya's capital when a militant-fired grenade brought down a building in which they were sheltering, officials said on Tuesday. "The militants attacked our base in the old factory, when a grenade knocked the wall down," said one officer as he stood next to the ruins of the disused building on the edge of Grozny.
Troops had moved into the factory on Monday to spend the night there when they came under fire. Two rebels were killed before rebel fire toppled a support wall in the building. The attack showed that at least some of the militants, who have fought Moscow's rule for a decade, were not abiding by a ceasefire declared by their leaders. The unilateral truce, which was intended to lead to peace talks but has been rejected by Russian officials, is due to end at midnight on Tuesday. According to human rights groups, some 20,000 soldiers have died in Chechnya since Russia sent in troops to crush separatist militants in 1994. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2005 00:00:00 ||
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THE HAGUE - The trial of a young Muslim, alleged to have plotted attacks against several targets in The Netherlands including the country's main airport and a nuclear power station, is scheduled to open on Thursday in Rotterdam. The prosecution suspect defendant Samir Azzouz, 18, of having links with a radical network known as the Lions of Islamic JihadHofstad Group, another associate of which is on trial for the murder last November of moviemaker Theo van Gogh, who directed a controversial film criticizing Islamic attitudes towards women. Azzouz stands accused of planning attacks against the Dutch parliament, Schiphol airport, the defense ministry, the Borssele nuclear power plant and offices used by the Dutch intelligence service.
All at once or one at a time?
Investigators said plans of the alleged targets were found in the home of the accused, along with ammonia and other materials that could have been used to make a bomb. Azzouz was also accused of an armed robbery in a Rotterdam supermarket to finance his alleged terrorist operations. He was arrested in the course of investigations into this robbery.
Twelve members of the Hofstad group -- the name given to a number of young radical Moslems in Rotterdam and Amsterdam by Dutch intelligence -- were arrested in November and accused of belonging to a terrorist conspiracy. Investigators said that Azzouz, who has joint Moroccan-Dutch citizenship and is a father, attempted to go to Chechnya in 2003 to fight Russian forces and had since been followed by Dutch intelligence.
He was arrested for a first time in October 2003 along with four other suspected Islamic terrorists extremists, but all were released for lack of proof. Judicial sources said Azzouz had declined to answer questions during the preliminary stages of the investigation, or to undergo a personality test.
Wise move, he'd have flunked.
This article starring:
SAMIR AZZUZ
Hofstad Group
Theo van Gogh
Hofstad Group
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2005 12:28:42 AM ||
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An FBI informant said yesterday he wanted to put "the world on notice" but not actually commit suicide when he set himself on fire outside the White House in November. Testifying at the Brooklyn federal trial of two Yemeni men accused of plotting to help terrorism, informant Mohamed Alanssi said his suicidal gesture was actually designed to try and get more money from his FBI handlers. "It was my right to get as much money as I can," Alanssi said under questioning by defense attorney Howard Jacobs, who is representing Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, a Muslim cleric. "I was very upset and I had no money," Alanssi, 53, explained later under cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moore. "My wife is sick. She has cancer. I can't go back to Yemen because my life is in danger in al-Yemen."
Al-Moayad, 56, is on trial with his aide Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 31, on charges they conspired to provide about $2 million and other assistance to the terror groups al-Qaida and Hamas. Alanssi, a short, bespectacled, heavyset man with close-cropped gray hair, is the main FBI informant in the case. It was Alanssi and another FBI operative who met with al-Moayad and Zayed in January 2003 in Germany. Secret tapes that were made of those meetings comprise the prosecution's main evidence in the case. After Alanssi got into a dispute with his FBI handlers last year and tried to set himself on fire, Brooklyn federal prosecutors apparently thought better of calling him as their witness. Instead defense attorneys called him but his testimony appears to have hurt their cause at times, particularly when he blurted out that al-Moayad is linked to terrorists. Yesterday, Alanssi repeated his claim that al-Moayad said he personally gave $20 million to Osama bin Laden several years before Sept. 11, 2001, and gave $3.5 million to Hamas. Alanssi also stuck to his story that it was his job to travel around and try to root out terrorism. He again insisted that al-Moayad's charitable bakery in Yemen was "a fake."
Alanssi was argumentative with defense attorneys and sometimes avoided answering queries directly. He occasionally appeared to smirk at their questions. Asked by Zayed's attorney Jonathan Marks how he learned to say he couldn't answer questions with a simple yes or no answer, Alanssi had a response that drew laughs: "Through the movie, 'Law & Order.'"
This article starring:
MOHAMED ALI HASAN AL MOAIAD
Learned Elders of Islam
Posted by: Steve ||
02/23/2005 11:51:17 AM ||
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#1
I knew that.
Every time I've set fire to myself it's been a ploy, too.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2005 13:44 Comments ||
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#2
Heh, I love this straight forward honesty. But he has a point, if you want informants, it costs. We can afford to fly his wife here and put her in a good cancer center. If he gives up a little bit that allows us to hang a terrorist, it is worth it. dont count pennies when the propaganda payoff is worth more than you can count.
#4
I wonder if he actually new anything of value or was just trying to get money.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/23/2005 14:53 Comments ||
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#5
It's an appeals thing -- Howard can be brought up on conflict-of-interest charges.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/23/2005 14:56 Comments ||
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#6
I think it's more that he said everything of value, and he wanted huge sums, the likes of which are never paid to informants. The feds made what they considered to be a very generous donation, and this guy considered it to be pennies.
#7
Alanssi is a nutcase. The FBI probably paid him what he was worth. The auto-firebuggery confirmed their suspicions that he was a nutcase. It is a hell of a job working with informants, like practicing a dark art, as they are usually low lifes.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, AK ||
02/23/2005 18:00 Comments ||
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Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, an American citizen, and at least 10 unidentified co-conspirators allegedly planned in 2002 and 2003 to kill Bush either by shooting him or by detonating a car bomb, according to an indictment released during a hearing before a U.S. magistrate judge in Alexandria, Va. The six-count indictment also alleges that Abu Ali and one of the co-conspirators discussed ways he could conduct a terrorist operation and establish an al-Qaida cell in the United States.
According to U.S. officials, Abu Ali was arrested June 9, 2003, in Medina, Saudi Arabia, during a crackdown by Saudi authorities on alleged terrorist cells blamed for the bombings a month earlier that killed 34, including nine Americans, in three residential compounds in Riyadh. He was detained in a Saudi prison and was flown to Washington Dulles International Airport only hours before Tuesday's hearing in U.S. District Court. He is scheduled to appear in court again Thursday.
Abu Ali is charged with providing material support and resources to al-Qaida, providing material support to terrorists, contributing services to al-Qaida, receiving funds and services from al-Qaida, and two counts of conspiracy. If convicted on all charges, he could be sentenced to up to 80 years in prison. According to the grand jury indictment, items found at Abu Ali's home in Falls Church a week after his arrest included a six-page document on how to avoid government and private surveillance, a document praising the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and the terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon, a copy of Handguns magazine with the name "Ahmed Ali" on the subscription label, audio tapes promoting violent holy war and the killing of Jews, and a book by Al Qaeda deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri criticizing democracy.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/23/2005 1:32:00 AM ||
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#1
At the very least they should fine him a few bucks for that self conscious smirk!
An American student who was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for the last 20 months was returned to the United States and accused by the Justice Department on Tuesday of plotting with members of Al Qaeda in 2003 to assassinate President Bush. In an indictment unsealed in federal court in Alexandria, Va., the student, a 23-year-old American citizen named Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, is charged with providing material support for terrorism. Mr. Abu Ali is accused of training with Al Qaeda overseas and wanting to "become a planner of terrorist operations" like Mohammed Atta or Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, two Qaeda leaders central to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The indictment's accusations rely mainly on the testimony of several unnamed co-conspirators. While American officials said they took the threat seriously, the indictment suggests that any plot to assassinate Mr. Bush did not move beyond the discussion stages among extremists in Saudi Arabia, and Mr. Abu Ali was not charged under the federal statute on assassinations.
Friends of Mr. Abu Ali and defense lawyers denied that he was part of any terrorist plot and accused the Justice Department of an overzealous prosecution. They said that Mr. Abu Ali, a valedictorian at an Islamic high school in suburban Washington, was the victim of torture at the hands of the Saudis after his arrest there in June 2003, an assertion that a federal judge in Washington appeared to validate in a recent ruling in a lawsuit brought by Mr. Abu Ali's family to force his release.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
02/23/2005 1:24:52 AM ||
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#1
and other prosecutions suffered zero setbacks like--lackawanna six--paintball putzes--cair assholes--oregon idjits--blind sheik--fat lawyer--the last sentence in the story is nyslimes LLL spin--this guy gets abeed schlong up the hershey highway for 20 years--feds don't lose on unindicted co-conspirator testimony--lashing is legal under sharia in the ksa--bite me jihadiboy
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
02/23/2005 3:35 Comments ||
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#2
Just exactly how many terrorist /jihadi have not been convicted? Zero. There have been no "setbacks all these dumb turkeys are in federal pound in the you know where prison. The NYT a another lying member in good standing of the anti-US Coalition of the Stupid.
#4
The Detroit case was a real screw-up. The prosecuter admitted to tampering with evidence. I don't know whether they were really guilty or not. (It's conceivable that they were innocent.)
#7
They said that Mr. Abu Ali, a valedictorian at an Islamic high school in suburban Washington, was the victim of torture at the hands of the Saudis after his arrest there in June 2003,..
valedictorian at an Islamic high school
Subject of the talk :
"Psycologial impact of anticipating virgins - Why the 72 is important." or, "The joy of dispersing one's atoms with plastique and nails."
#10
I loved that the lawyer complained that his client was tortured by Saudi authorities and the Judged responded: âI donât think he will be tortured by the FBI and he will remain in custody!â You could just hear the air leave the lawyer bubble. I am sure the Saudis were not nice to this young Islamofacists but that donât make him innocent.
#11
"Abu Ali attended high school at the Islamic Saudi Academy, a private school in Alexandria that serves hundreds (uh-oh) of children of Saudi citizens and is subsidized by the Saudi government. He graduated in 1999 as valedictorian of his class."
Islamic highschool, huh? Wasn't there a discussion a couple of days ago about the Swiss getting the "bright" idea that teaching Islam in their schools would somehow improve things? Well, this is what you get from the "valedictorian" of such an institution. Moral of the story: Teach Islam and yer gonna git trouble--and there ain't no two ways 'bout it.
The Osama bin-Laden Academy of woman enslavement, and mass murder of Christians and Jews.
Sample Questions for tests/and assignments : Mathematics : How many Virgins does it take to keep a Martyr Happy? Biology : What is the most effective Dispersal of Anthrax? Chemistry : What is the most efficient way to manufacture Ricin? Physics : What is the best isotope to use in a "dirty" nuclear bomb? Foreign Language : Write a letter in Farsi to his emminence the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran congratulating him on his countries development of Nuclear Weapons for use on the Joooz. History : Describe your favorite methods of execution used by Saladin during the crusades. Phys Ed : Practice your skill for the future by using a rusty knife to saw a watermelon in two.
#14
I found this at www.homelandsecurityus.com; "it is interesting to point out that Ismail Selim Elbarasse - the Virginia man stopped last summer for videotaping the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago for providing material support for Hamas, worked as an accountant for 14 years at the Islamic Saudi Academy High School. He was terminated in 1998 when Ali was a senior."
#16
TCal: You've got me wondering. Not real familiar with the path from DC to Camp David, but my sister knows a Secret Service agent who guards Bush occassionally. She just told me that he had told her (I know, 3rd hand to you all) that one time a while ago when he was guarding the Prez, they were driving up to camp David (that alone made me wonder 'bout the story..thought he flew Marine 1), and the convoy came up on a vacant car on the side of the road (very desolate road she made it sound like, that may have been cleared to make way). Anyhoo, turns out, there was no one with the car, no plates, and there was a suitcase in the front seat. According to the agent, it turned out to be nothing, but they had received specific intel about potential roadside bombs to take him out. Don't know where this school is (or the guy you mentioned ties to it), but I imagine its near DC, as the kid's dad worked in the Saudi embassy. Coincidence?
Posted by: BA ||
02/23/2005 20:44 Comments ||
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Marshall County, Miss., authorities had a mystery on their hands Monday after the killing of a Red Banks convenience store clerk. About 3 a.m. Sunday, the killer entered the Texaco gas station and grocery store on old Highway 78 and gunned down Hefad Hallah 'Tony' Almuntaser, 31.
Guy with a turban working long hours in a convenience store, bumped off in the wee hours of the morning. Happens now and then...
Nothing was taken from the cash register and the victim's wallet was in his pocket, Sheriff Kenny Dickerson said.
That part doesn't usually happen...
Almuntaser was shot at least twice, probably with a handgun, Dickerson said. "We have not determined a motive," he said. "But we have no reason to believe it was a robbery ... the money was still in the cash register."
But wait! There's more...
A fellow clerk inside the store saw the shooting. "But we are not getting any information out of him," Dickerson said.
I wonder why?
A state-of-the-art surveillance camera system was turned off sometime before the shooting, Dickerson said. "Normally, it would have been on," he said.
Ummm... Have you thought about applying the knuckle dusters to the other clerk?
Police were dispatched to the store after a woman who stopped at the gas station to fill up noticed an argument going on in the Texaco. She drove across the road and called 9-1-1.
Arguing with whom?
The owner of the Red Banks store, who owns several other such businesses, is on his way back to Mississippi from Jerusalem, and may be able to shed light on the shooting, Dickerson said. An autopsy was being performed Monday in Jackson, Miss.
It's probably not associated with terrorism in any way. The fact that the guy's Middle Eastern is mere coincidence. My initial guess, given the scanty facts, is that the other clerk dunnit. Just a flash in the pan killing and ten years from now poor Tony will be forgotten. Probably he wasn't a sleeper. Probably he didn't know anything, much less too much. Probably Big Mahmoud wasn't dispatched to rub him out before he went to the Feds. Probably nothing like the Hezbollah brothers in North Carolina a couple years back who were shipping the profits of a cigarette smuggling racket back to Lebanon...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2005 10:36:36 PM ||
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#3
If the owner is on the way back from Jerusalem does that mean he's ME too? Or is Middle Eastern just another way to say Jewish so it doesn't appear to be a hate crime?
Posted by: Charles ||
02/23/2005 6:59 Comments ||
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More likely Palestinian, Charles. Think East Jerusalem.
#5
Or think Palestinian-Israeli (Arab-Israeli?) err . . . uh . . . the Muslims what did not run away when the Jews moved in.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/23/2005 14:48 Comments ||
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#6
Arab Israeli. Some Arabs of the Muslim, Christian and Druze persuasions remained when the majority ran away in 1948. Even more of the Muslim and Christian flavours were 'acquired' in 1967, as residents of re-united Jerusalem. And then finally, as a result of one of the post-Oslo agreements (or maybe it was Oslo itself, I can't keep track), a number of residents of the PA territories were allowed to move in in a family re-unification program. The latter group tend to be bona fide Jew haters and terror supporters.
16.02.2005 at 2240 LT at Chittagong 'B' anchorage, Bangladesh. Ten robbers armed with long knives boarded a chemical tanker from two boats. They seized duty a/b and held him at knifepoint. D/O raised alarm and crew mustered. Robbers jumped overboard and escaped with ship's stores. Chittagong port control informed.
15.02.2005 at 1545 UTC in posn: 02:38N - 107:47E, South China Sea. An unlit craft approached a bulk carrier underway. Alert crew flashed aldis lamp in the direction of the craft. A few minutes later craft altered course and moved away.
15.02.2005 at 0505 LT at Adang Bay anchorage, Indonesia. Three robbers armed with iron rods boarded a bulk carrier from hawse pipe. They broke open forepeak locker and stole ship's stores and a liferaft. Duty a/b raised alarm and crew mustered. Robbers escaped in their boat.
Posted by: Pappy ||
02/23/2005 12:47:31 AM ||
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#1
An unlit craft approached a bulk carrier underway. Alert crew flashed aldis lamp in the direction of the craft.
"What's he saying, matey?"
"R-U-N--O-U-T--N-I-N-E--P-O-U-N-D-E-R-S"
Posted by: Mike ||
02/23/2005 6:44 Comments ||
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Ten robbers armed with long knives boarded a chemical tanker from two boats.
I'm sure, like all self-respecting pirates, they carried them gripped in their teeth.
Indonesian prosecutors made their final push on Tuesday to convict militant Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on terrorism charges by arguing he was aware of plans for deadly bomb attacks but never tried to stop them. Prosecutors wound up their case against 66-year-old Bashir on charges that link him to the October 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali that killed 202 people, many of them foreign tourists, and the 2003 blast at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel in which 12 died.
Bashir is charged with criminal acts of arson and explosion in relation to the Bali blasts and with "evil conspiracy" under Indonesia's anti-terror laws over the Marriott bombing. The white-bearded cleric has repeatedly denied the charges, which he says resulted from Western pressure. Prosecutors had earlier cited a lack of evidence when they dropped a charge that Bashir had incited terror attacks as the leader of the militant, al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network in Southeast Asia.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Police in Baghdad said Wednesday they captured a suspected terrorist leader who was a soldier in Saddam Hussein's regime. Ali Hassan Kadham al-Jabouri was arrested with five others who allegedly were setting up an illegal checkpoint recently, police said. Authorities accuse al-Jabouri of leading terrorist cells, kidnapping and weapons smuggling.
American forces found four large weapons caches, including bombs, rockets and mortar rounds, in Mosul on Wednesday, the U.S. military said. U.S. and Iraqi troops also captured 11 suspected insurgents in four separate operations in the Mosul area this week, the military said.
Iraq's interim government said it's reopening all border crossings that were closed last week to keep insurgents from infiltrating the country during Ashura. Ashura -- arguably the holiest day on the Shiite calendar -- attracts pilgrims to Iraq from all over the world. Weekend attacks in Baghdad resulted in dozens of deaths.
This article starring:
ALI HASAN KADHAM AL JABURI
Iraqi Insurgency
Posted by: Steve ||
02/23/2005 2:25:31 PM ||
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DEBKAfile's Exclusive Palestinian and intelligence sources report:
Death squads controlled by Gaza's would-be strongman Mohammed Dahlan are busy settling accounts with Palestinian intelligence chief Mussa Arafat's men. Sending an I-am-in-charge message, Dahlan dispatched assassins Wednesday, February 23 to gun down a Palestinian military intelligence officer and throw his body outside his home. According to DEBKAfile's Palestinian and intelligence sources, Dahlan's death squads had earlier disposed of three other Arafat adherents, murders Palestinian authorities have scrambled to hush up.
Captain Mohammed Abu Jarad, 27, died Saturday, February 19, in hail of submachine-gun bullets and grenades on his car in Gaza's Sheikh Daraj neighborhood. His body, riddled with bullets and shrapnel, was dumped in the center of the city for all to see. A day later, masked men grabbed Captain Dihab Hamdu, 33, from his home in Gaza's Sheikh Reduan district. His corpse was also abandoned in the town center. A third intelligence officer, another captain, was killed in a separate attack but his body has yet been found. Our sources report that Nabil Hamous, leader of Gaza's death squads, arranged the assassinations at Dahlan's behest. All of the dead officers took part in clashes between Arafat's and Dahlan's forces, as well as in the infamous incident last November in which warning shots were fired over the head of new Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) after Yasser Arafat's death, when he visited a tent set up for mourners in Gaza City.
Following that non-fatal shooting, Abu Mazen seemed to have brokered a "sulha", or reconciliation, between the Gaza Strip's three warring chiefs: Dahlan, Arafat, who holds multiple jobs as general security commander, head of the Palestinian armed forces in the Gaza Strip and military intelligence chief, and Rashid Abu Shbak, head of the preventive security service in the territory. Part of the peace deal was mutual consent to dismantle the death squads. The latest wave of murders indicates that none of the rivals intended to keep his side of the bargain and has no scruples about defying Abbas' authority. Dahlan simply ordered his hired killers to obey him rather than Abbas but to keep a low profile. Internal strife for the top spot in the Gaza Strip has just begun. Several of our Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip say it is only a matter of time before Mussa Arafat and his followers respond in kind to Dahlan's "house-cleaning" operation.
This article starring:
CAPTAIN DIHAB HAMDU
Palestinian Authority
CAPTAIN MOHAMED ABU JARAD
Palestinian Authority
MOHAMED DAHLAN
Palestinian Authority
MUSA ARAFAT
Palestinian Authority
NABIL HAMUS
Palestinian Authority
RASHID ABU SHBAK
Palestinian Authority
Posted by: Steve ||
02/23/2005 2:21:47 PM ||
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#1
sucks being on the losing end, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/23/2005 15:04 Comments ||
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#2
I think the only thing that would actually produce any result in the Gaza would be the indiscriminate use of napalm and heavy artillery. The survivors can flee to Egypt in a reversal of the Sinai wanderings of Moses. We can let Abbas lead them - it'll give him a big head, but not letting him come back will take care of that.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/23/2005 15:54 Comments ||
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#3
"Gangs of Gaza"... it has a nice sound to it. Wonder if Martin Scorsese is available?
February 23, 2005: Another enormous troop movement is just about finished in Iraq. The second annual troop rotation to Iraq is almost complete. Some 15,000 troops were kept in Iraq to provide additional security for the elections last month. This turned out to be a prudent move, as the security was good enough to keep the vast majority of voting places safe. But now the 18th Airborne Corps headquarters, the 42nd Infantry Division (a National Guard outfit), the 3rd Infantry Division and the 2nd Marine MEU (Division) have replaced the 3rd Corps headquarters, the 1st Infantry Division, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 1st Marine MEU (Division). American troops strength will go down to 138,000 by March. The increased traffic from over 250,000 troops moving in and out over the last few months has caused an increase in traffic accidents, although combat injuries have been declining since the battle of Fallujah last November. Most of the heavy equipment belonging to units remains in Iraq, to ease up the logistics burden. The troops either return to the equipment they left behind when they came over, or are issued new equipment and weapons, to the replace those being left behind, when they get home.
This practice of moving troops and equipment as separate entities is a Cold War innovation. To speed the movement of reinforcements from the United States to Europe, in the event that the Soviet Union invaded, two divisions had one set of equipment in Europe, and another set back in the United States, where they were based.. Actually, the plan was also developed as a politically acceptable way to withdraw two divisions from Europe. This was done in 1968, but the equipment stayed behind, and was stored and maintained by contractors (German civilians). Starting in 1969, some of the troops would fly to Europe, fire up the gear, and go out on field exercises. The troops would then return the gear to the storage areas and fly home. These annual exercises lasted until 1988. The experience gained in all those "REFORGER" exercises made the army, and marines, confident that they could apply the concept of pre-positioned equipment elsewhere. This also led to the idea, as applied in Iraq, of having the first units to be there, to leave their gear behind (if they were being replaced by the same type units.) This saved a lot of money in shipping costs, not to mention the additional work the troops had to do preparing everything for sea movement.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve ||
02/23/2005 9:32:47 AM ||
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#1
Just as an aside: one of the oddities of WWII was that more British citizens in Britain died as a result of traffic accidents involving American forces than were killed in the German Blitz.
#3
LOL Grom.
two divisions had one set of equipment in Europe, and another set back in the United States, where they were based
It's expensive to fight like an American.
#4
Shipman, the reasoning was if the Rooskis had attacked there wasn't time to ship all the equipment over to Europe so equipment was pre-positioned. The troops would be flown over and mate up with the pre-positioned stuff. The equipment in the States would then be loaded on ships and used as replacement stuff for stuf lost in battle. Actually, a good way to go.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/23/2005 11:40 Comments ||
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#5
Warfare since the railway (and arguably before, but in a different way) has been a race to the battlefield, culminating in the timetables of Russian troop trains in WWI, that once begun were difficult to be stopped. Anything that could allow you to steal a march on the enemy such as delaying his mobilization by a day was seen as beneficial. Prepositioned weapons lets your guys get off the planes with brand new shiny mothballed equipment, ready to go, and as you said, with plenty of spares ready for shipping.
"Amateurs study tactics. Professionals study logistics."
Posted by: Mark E. ||
02/23/2005 12:03 Comments ||
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#7
The experience gained in all those âREFORGERâ exercises made the army, and marines, confident that they could apply the concept of pre-positioned equipment elsewhere.
As an unfortunate byproduct the Army forgot how to deploy "for real". Too many years of flogging the same old exercise.
Among other things, this resulted in over reliance on the 82nd to go places and do things, and a couple of divisions that were the equivalent of hangar queens. One BIG advantage of the Navy/Marine approach through the cold war was that every unit cycled through a deployment every 18 months, keeping everyone in a reasonably battle ready status.
Another problem is that the canned exercises are planned at too high a level, with pre-allocated logistics/transport resources. A case in point was that early in Desert Shield the Army had to get water from the Marines. The Army had the capability, but it was in reserve units requiring mobilization & training.
See
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/declassdocs/marines/19960917/082696_d50039_001.html
or
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/DAHSUM/1990-91/ch07.htm (p93)
In (old) Army think "we have that capability", unfortunately it's at the theater level sitting in Germany, and the poor SOB's on the pointy end of the stick have to improvise.
#10
I took part in some eleven different REFORGER exercises in one extent or another during my military career. The first was in 1969 with the 49th Tac Fighter Wing. There are problems with the concept, and people are still working on them. That's why you have 700 tanks and thousands of other vehicles in various places around the world. Military equipment began having the ability to operate in a chemical environment in 1976, and it kept getting better. Most of the equipment stored was wrapped in material that would have been discarded prior to decontamination and issuance. Several of the "storage sites" we SAID we were stocking, weren't. We studied the Russian battle plan almost as much as they did. There would have been some major surprises for them if they'd ever come across the line. I'm glad they never did, but it wouldn't have been the cake-walk a lot of people outside the military spouted off about.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/23/2005 15:44 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Like that graphic--it must have been a recruiting poster for the Pennsylvania Nat'l Guard with that keystone in the corner (the Germans supposedly called it "The Bloody Bucket" when they were slugging it out with the 28th ID in the Huertgen Forest).
Posted by: Dar ||
02/23/2005 16:25 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Speaking of roatation and traffic, my brother has one more week in Baghdad, then he has to say goodbye to getting around in armored SUV's. He is going back to Naples, Italy. He is a bit nervous as he will have to get around the Naples madhouse in an unarmored BMW. Poor fella.
February 22, 2005: For the last three days, a brigade of coalition troops (U.S. Marines and Iraqis) have been engaged in "Operation River Blitz," west of Baghdad. Based on information collected last November in Fallujah, and since, roadblocks were set up throughout Anbar province, and raids carried out in Ramadi (the capital of the province) and other largely Sunni Arab cities along the Euphrates river. Anbar province has been the scene of most Sunni Arab violence in the last year, but that began to change after Fallujah was cleared out last November. Since then, anti-government attacks have been fewer, as have coalition casualties. Arrests of terrorists have increased, and more Sunni Arab groups have defied the terrorists and began negotiating with the government. These Sunni groups, led by tribal and religious leaders, are often heavily armed, with informal militias (formal militias are illegal) containing hundreds, or even thousands, of armed men.
The Sunni leaders have avoided ordering their followers to not attack the government or coalition forces, lest they have a little civil war on their hands. But that is now changing, as more Sunni Arabs, fed up with the chaos, and seeming futility of fighting the government and coalition forces, try to switch sides. The more deliberate attacks on oil facilities and utilities (like water and power), have only made life more uncomfortable. The battle of Fallujah last November made it clear that anti-government claims to have "liberated" Fallujah were just more empty propaganda. Following that, the widespread arrests of Sunni Arabs involved in the terrorism, added to the feeling among Sunni Arabs that they were backing a losing cause. Despite deliberate attacks on Shia religious festivities in the last week, the Shia dominated government continues to offer deals to Sunni Arab leaders who were willing to stick their necks out, and order their followers to cool it with the violence. These Sunni Arabs do face some real danger, for the Baath Party and al Qaeda leaders are willing to go after prominent Sunni Arabs for "disloyalty." For Sunni Arabs, the battle for Iraq is far from over.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/23/2005 9:24:20 AM ||
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Iraqi insurgents told Iraqi television Wednesday they were taught in Syria how to prepare and detonate cars bombs and roadside explosives. Also a Syrian national, going by the name of Anas the Syrian, appeared on television and confessed he was a first lieutenant in Syrian intelligence. The insurgents -- many former officers of the dissolved Iraqi army -- confessed to several crimes, including the kidnappings and killings of Iraqis working as translators with the U.S. forces. They also admitted to bombing attacks against multinational troops in the city of Mosul, north of Iraq. They said they were trained in Latakia, Syria, by Syrian intelligence officers.
The televised confessions have been going on for three days and are bound to cause a crisis in relations between Iraq and neighboring Syria. Iraqi authorities have so far accused Damascus of allowing hostile gunmen to cross the border into Iraq to fight multi-national troops. The insurgents said they executed dozens of Iraqis in return for monthly salaries from the Syrian intelligence ranging between $500 and $1,500.
Tick....tick....tick...
Posted by: Steve ||
02/23/2005 9:12:04 AM ||
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#1
A bullet in Assad's head from long range should do the job.
#2
Could I just point out that the US government has repeatedly denied plans for invading Iran? Now, Syria, on the other hand... have you seen any denials?
#3
Finally...effective use of the media. If it were up to me, I'd blanket the airwaves with reality shows displaying what goes on in insurgent circles.
#4
Assad has his private parts in SEVERAL wringers (quite a trick), what with his botching of the Lebanan assasination, and now this airing of his obvious complicity in the Iraqi murders. Oops.
And consiering the fact that the U.S. military is currently on a "good-will tour" of Iraq...well, Assad better beat feet for Paris SOON (whence ALL exiled despots go).
#6
I'm even getting sick of the term "insurgents." When you are a national, defending your homeland, yes, you are an "insurgent." But when you go around calling yourself Anas the Syrian, you're NO insurgent. Sure hope "G.I. the American" gets his hands on Anas.
Posted by: BA ||
02/23/2005 13:23 Comments ||
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#7
You really think Baby Assad is in actual charge in Syria?
#8
I'd blanket the airwaves with reality shows displaying what goes on in insurgent circles. It appears the Iraqis are. Apparently these terrorist confession shows run for hours. Clever.
Grenade blast at Moulvibazar shrine-Imam, madrasa teacher held A grenade exploded at Shaidingi shrine in Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar on Sunday night badly damaging the structure of the shrine. No casualty, however, was reported while the roof of the shrine was blown up. Immediately after the explosion, locals captured a local Imam and a madrasa teacher on suspicion, and handed them over to police.
That makes sense to me, muslim holy men and explosives seem to go together
Police said the detainees -- Maruf Mohammed Ishaque, 22, and Quamrul -- had confessed their involvement in the explosion.
"Ooch! Ouch! Ouch! Ooch! We confess! We dunnit!"
Police declined to elaborate on the leads obtained from the two. A team of Bangladesh Army's explosive experts from Comilla had visited the scene and recovered splinters from the spot. Team leader Captain Manjur confirmed it to be a hand grenade. Police and locals said the grenade exploded at about 8:15pm sometime after a few thousand people had left Prithimpasa Nawab Bari where the local Shia community arranged an Ashura programme. The venue stands only 200 yards off the scene of the blast.
Got all fired up at the Ashura program and had to boom something
Maruf, who hailed from Haluaghat of Mymensingh, is Imam of the local mosque and a student of Karmadha Madrasa while Quamrul is a teacher of Darus Salam Madrasa in Sylhet. Besides the two, police held a woman at Budhpasa village on suspicion that her son could be another accomplice of Maruf and Quamrul.
"Madame? You have a son named Mahmoud?"
"Yeah? Whut's it to yez? Whut's he done now?"
"Come with us, please!"
"[Gasp!] To the abandoned warehouse?"
"No, to the cop shoppe."
"Whew. Okay."
"And then we're going to the abandoned warehouse!"
[gasp] "No! No! Anything but that!"
Raushan Ara Begum, superintendent of Moulvibazar police, who visited the spot last night, told The Daily Star that police and army personnel are jointly investigating the incident.
Dhamrai militants busted
Twelve suspected extremists were arrested from Dhamrai, Jahangirnagar University (JU) and Joypurhat Sunday night. The six arrested from Dhamrai were found with bomb-making formulas, masks, wigs and important documents belonging to an extremist organisation, while JU authorities also found a timer and an audio tape containing a speech protesting attempts to arrest Osama bin Laden, Mufti Fazlul Haq Amini and Shaikhul Hadith Azizul Haque. Intelligence agencies, meantime, have mounted surveillance on a number of mosques in the north-western regions of the country in the wake of a recent wave of bomb attacks on various NGOs, including Brac and Grameen Bank. A patrol team of Dhamrai police challenged eight youths as they were walking by Joypura Jora bridge on the Dhaka-Aricha highway at 1:00am yesterday. Two of the youths ran away when they saw the police, and remaining six were arrested. It has been learned that four of the six Abdul Wahab, 26, Yakub Ali, 21, Faruq Hossain, 34, Rafiqul Islam, 18, Nurul Islam, 20, and Anwar Hossain, 23, -- are students of the area's Sharifabad Madrasa.
Just good muslim schoolboys, out for a stroll at 1am.
"Each of them was carrying a bag," Tareq Kamal, officer-in-charge of the Dhamrai Police Station, told reporters.
"'Ere, now, lads! Wot's in the bags?"
Searching their bags, police found pieces of glass, five diaries and a notebook, dresses for girls, ladies' underwear, masks, fake beards and moustaches, wigs and bomb-making formulas complete with drawings.
Typical muslim school supplies, if you're a cross-dressing terrorist
Police said all of the youths were wearing lungis and pajamas, but that each carried with them two extra dresses. Police also found three pairs of shoes, muri (fried rice), cakes, soft drinks and bottles of drinking water. The youths claimed they were returning from a feast at one Delwar Hossain's house, but police could not find anyone by that name in the area, raising doubts about the youth's motives for roaming the highway at night.
Sounds like every episode of "COPS" where they pull over a car in a crack neighborhood:
"What are you boys doing down here tonight?"
"Visting a friends house."
"Yeah, where's your friend live?"
"Err, over there"
"What's your friends name?"
"Ah, err, ummmmm...."
"OK, hands on the car..."
A police source said the arrested disclosed the names of eight members of 'their people'. Local police officials suspected, based on the recovered items, that the youths were preparing to undertake an operation.
"Legume, I believe they were preparing to undertake an operation!"
"Gosh, Inspector! How do you do it?"
Several police sources said the extremists have a safe den somewhere in the area, where they are training young members. Reporters have not been permitted to speak with the arrestees.
Three hard boyz arrested at Water Development Board mosque
Police arrested three activists of Jamaatul Mujahidin from the Water Development Board mosque in Thakurgaon on Thursday night. The arrestees are Amanat Ullah, Mamun ur Rashid and Mahbub Alam. Following the statement police raided the house of one Asiruddin, 50, of Laxmipur village in Sadar upazila of Thakurgaon and seized bomb making materials, acid, splinters, electrical wire, batteries, a dummy rifle made of bamboo and rod, some books and leaflets as well as a cycle of violence motor cycle.
SEE: muslim school supplies
Police said the arrestees admitted to police that they were carrying out anti-NGO propaganda at the direction of Bangla Bhai, operation commander of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), and Dr Asadullah Galib of Rajshahi University. Earlier, in the first week of February, police arrested 12 members of Jamaatul Mujahidin activists from a mosque in Natore. Superintendent of Police (SP) of Thakurgaon Khandaker Golam Faruq said there are thousands of mosques, but such activities. "It is not possible to watch every mosque by limited forces," he said.
100 hurt in clash over grass land
At least 100 people including a woman were injured in a clash between two groups of villagers at Madir Haor of Ashurail village under Buresheyar union in Nasirnagar upazila over cutting grass from a disputed land on Friday. Aksir Mia of a group led by Md Karim member and Younus Mia of their rival group led by Farid Mia exchanged hot words following cutting of grass at the disputed land, according to eye-witnesses, hospital and police sources.
"Hey, git yur hands off my grass!"
At one stage they began a wrestling. Being informed, at least 800 supporters of both the groups equipped with lethal weapons rushed to the spot and locked in a bloody clash that lasted for two hours.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/23/2005 8:42:14 AM ||
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#1
The Water Development Board has its own mosque? Talk about job perks.
#4
I learned long ago that the usual way to make water is to add one oxygen to two hydrogens, then run an electrical current through the mixture until it gives up and becomes water. Or if one wishes to make it complicated, pull water vapour out of the air, then cool to a liquid; last possibility being to warm solid water until it reaches liquid state. Are the Bangladeshi scientists at the Water Board on the track of a new method?
An Israeli military court Monday passed five life sentences against Hassaan Abu Leil, an affiliate with the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades the military wing of the Fatah Movement. Legal sources said that the court found Hassaan "guilty" of shooting at an Israeli army base in the Jordan Valley in April 2003 that killed two soldiers and wounded eight others. The same court also passed a 40-year-term against Kayed Kalboni, another Fatah activist, for "involvement" in two commando raids in Tulkarm and near Qalqilia. Both armed attacks led to the injury of four Israeli soldiers.
This article starring:
HASAAN ABU LEIL
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
KAIED KALBONI
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2005 00:00:00 ||
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An Israeli military court has passed a 115-year-verdict against Issa Battat, a resident of Bethlehem city, claiming he masterminded five major raids in the Hebrew state. The court said that Battat was the commander of the Quds Brigades the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Bethlehem before his arrest.
This article starring:
ISA BATTAT
Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2005 00:00:00 ||
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More than 500 Iranian pilgrims were detained in Basra, Faw and Abol-Khasib by Iraq's border guards and British troops, an informed source told Fars News Agency. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source noted that the Iranian pilgrims had illegally entered Iraq for attending "Ashura" ceremonies in Karbala's shrine of third Shiite Imam Hussein (AS) via Abadan and Arvand-Kenar waterways.
"Of course we're pilgrims! Wanna see our Ashura swords n' Kalashnikovs?"
According to another report, more than 60 illegal pilgrims, who tried to enter Iraq for the mourning ceremonies, were arrested by the police in Abadan and Khorramshahr. Iranian and Iraqi officials had repeatedly warned against embarking on illegal pilgrimage to Iraq.
Is it my imagination, or are we seeing more of these lately?
Police arrested a suspected Taliban activist in Balochistan on Tuesday. A Kalashnikov rifle with ammunition, a mobile phone and a Thuraya satellite phone were seized as well as some documents, police said, indicating the detainee may have links with senior members of the ousted Afghan regime. "We are scanning telephone numbers on the Thuraya to determine if the man had been in touch with Taliban leaders," police officer Rauf Bareach told AFP. Police refused to disclose the name of the detainee, who was captured in a raid on near Kuchlak town, 17 kilometers north of Quetta. Last month police arrested 17 Afghans including some Taliban suspects in a swoop on their hideouts in Quetta.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Suspected militants blew up an electricity pylon and fired rockets at a paramilitary camp, officials said on Tuesday.
"Inspector! Someone blew up an electricity pylon and fired rockets at the paramilitary camp!"
"Ahah! Legume, I suspect they may be militants!"
Meanwhile, Quetta police arrested five terror suspects in two raids and seized rockets and other weapons. A bomb on Monday toppled the pylon supporting a power line near Sibi, 110 kilometres southeast of Quetta, power company spokesman Gibrail Khan said. However the attack failed to break the high-tension wire, he added. The police arrested three suspected terrorists in a raid in the Western Bypass area and seized three rockets and other explosives.
Rafi Pervez Bhatti, the deputy inspector general of police in Quetta, said that the police raided the Marri Camp in the Western Bypass area on a tip-off and arrested the three. The police official said one of the arrested men had been identified as Abdur Rehman Marri who he said was wanted in the Justice Marri murder case. The three were involved in rocket attacks and bomb explosions in Balochistan. The police official said the Baloch Liberation Army and Baloch Liberation Front claim responsibility for these blasts and attacks earleir. In another raid, police arrested two suspects from a banned Sunni group and near a Shia mosque where Shias were busy mourning in connection with Muharram. Rahim Jaffery, a Shia scouts leader, said that the scouts pointed out that the two suspects were involved in mysterious activities near the mosque.
Meanwhile, four rockets fired from mountains landed near a paramilitary camp in Kohlu district 230 kilometres east of Quetta on Monday but there were no casualties or damage, police said. Paramilitary personnel also seized four rockets, four bombs, detonators and fuses.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/23/2005 9:06:36 PM ||
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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.
The engagement took place last night, when troops tried to neutralize an illegal roadblock on the highway that connects Ovejas with Sincelejo. The following was related by Colonel Rafael Colon, commander of the First Brigade of Marine Infantry: "A group of FARC Guerrillas were attempting to maintain a presence on the highway [a roadblock; Spanish like Arabic often tries to talk around the subject] and were confronted by members of the infantry battalion. During this fight, three of our men were murdered and others were injured, fortunately none seriously" stated the official in a radio transmission. According to Colon, the soldiers recovered a rebel corpse that also had perished in combat. "We are continuing with operations in this zone, with the goal of neutralizing the actions of the terrorists that are seeking to operate on the margins of the law," added the military chief.
Government soldiers killed eight rebels and discovered a large cache of weapons in dense jungles of southern Colombia, a top military official said Tuesday. Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina, the chief of the Colombian Armed Forces, called the rebel weapons seizure - which included machine guns and grenade launchers - one of the biggest since a military offensive began in the southern jungles more than a year ago. The most recent clashes took place over the past two days in an isolated region of Guaviare state, 210 miles south of Bogota. They came in response to rebel attacks that have surged since Feb. 1 and left more than 60 soldiers dead, Ospina said. He said government forces suffered no casualties in the latest fighting.
Nine Russian soldiers died and three were injured near Chechnya's capital when a militant-fired grenade brought down a building in which they were sheltering, officials said on Tuesday. "The militants attacked our base in the old factory, when a grenade knocked the wall down," said one officer as he stood next to the ruins of the disused building on the edge of Grozny. 
THE HAGUE - The trial of a young Muslim, alleged to have plotted attacks against several targets in The Netherlands including the country's main airport and a nuclear power station, is scheduled to open on Thursday in Rotterdam. The prosecution suspect defendant 
An FBI informant said yesterday he wanted to put "the world on notice" but not actually commit suicide when he set himself on fire outside the White House in November. Testifying at the Brooklyn federal trial of two Yemeni men accused of plotting to help terrorism, informant 
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, an American citizen, and at least 10 unidentified co-conspirators allegedly planned in 2002 and 2003 to kill Bush either by shooting him or by detonating a car bomb, according to an indictment released during a hearing before a U.S. magistrate judge in Alexandria, Va. The six-count indictment also alleges that Abu Ali and one of the co-conspirators discussed ways he could conduct a terrorist operation and establish an al-Qaida cell in the United States.
An American student who was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for the last 20 months was returned to the United States and accused by the Justice Department on Tuesday of plotting with members of Al Qaeda in 2003 to assassinate President Bush. In an indictment unsealed in federal court in Alexandria, Va., the student, a 23-year-old American citizen named Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, is charged with providing material support for terrorism. Mr. Abu Ali is accused of training with Al Qaeda overseas and wanting to "become a planner of terrorist operations" like Mohammed Atta or Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, two Qaeda leaders central to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Marshall County, Miss., authorities had a mystery on their hands Monday after the killing of a Red Banks convenience store clerk. About 3 a.m. Sunday, the killer entered the Texaco gas station and grocery store on old Highway 78 and gunned down Hefad Hallah 'Tony' Almuntaser, 31. 
16.02.2005 at 2240 LT at Chittagong 'B' anchorage, Bangladesh. Ten robbers armed with long knives boarded a chemical tanker from two boats. They seized duty a/b and held him at knifepoint. D/O raised alarm and crew mustered. Robbers jumped overboard and escaped with ship's stores. Chittagong port control informed.
Indonesian prosecutors made their final push on Tuesday to convict militant Muslim cleric 
February 23, 2005: Another enormous troop movement is just about finished in Iraq. The second annual troop rotation to Iraq is almost complete. Some 15,000 troops were kept in Iraq to provide additional security for the elections last month. This turned out to be a prudent move, as the security was good enough to keep the vast majority of voting places safe. But now the 18th Airborne Corps headquarters, the 42nd Infantry Division (a National Guard outfit), the 3rd Infantry Division and the 2nd Marine MEU (Division) have replaced the 3rd Corps headquarters, the 1st Infantry Division, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 1st Marine MEU (Division). American troops strength will go down to 138,000 by March. The increased traffic from over 250,000 troops moving in and out over the last few months has caused an increase in traffic accidents, although combat injuries have been declining since the battle of Fallujah last November. Most of the heavy equipment belonging to units remains in Iraq, to ease up the logistics burden. The troops either return to the equipment they left behind when they came over, or are issued new equipment and weapons, to the replace those being left behind, when they get home. 
February 22, 2005: For the last three days, a brigade of coalition troops (U.S. Marines and Iraqis) have been engaged in "Operation River Blitz," west of Baghdad. Based on information collected last November in Fallujah, and since, roadblocks were set up throughout Anbar province, and raids carried out in Ramadi (the capital of the province) and other largely Sunni Arab cities along the Euphrates river. Anbar province has been the scene of most Sunni Arab violence in the last year, but that began to change after Fallujah was cleared out last November. Since then, anti-government attacks have been fewer, as have coalition casualties. Arrests of terrorists have increased, and more Sunni Arab groups have defied the terrorists and began negotiating with the government. These Sunni groups, led by tribal and religious leaders, are often heavily armed, with informal militias (formal militias are illegal) containing hundreds, or even thousands, of armed men. 
The insurgents -- many former officers of the dissolved Iraqi army -- confessed to several crimes, including the kidnappings and killings of Iraqis working as translators with the U.S. forces. They also admitted to bombing attacks against multinational troops in the city of Mosul, north of Iraq. They said they were trained in Latakia, Syria, by Syrian intelligence officers.
A grenade exploded at Shaidingi shrine in Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar on Sunday night badly damaging the structure of the shrine. No casualty, however, was reported while the roof of the shrine was blown up. Immediately after the explosion, locals captured a local Imam and a madrasa teacher on suspicion, and handed them over to police. 
An Israeli military court has passed a 115-year-verdict against 
More than 500 Iranian pilgrims were detained in Basra, Faw and Abol-Khasib by Iraq's border guards and British troops, an informed source told Fars News Agency. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the source noted that the Iranian pilgrims had illegally entered Iraq for attending "Ashura" ceremonies in Karbala's shrine of third Shiite Imam Hussein (AS) via Abadan and Arvand-Kenar waterways. 
Police arrested a suspected Taliban activist in Balochistan on Tuesday. A Kalashnikov rifle with ammunition, a mobile phone and a Thuraya satellite phone were seized as well as some documents, police said, indicating the detainee may have links with senior members of the ousted Afghan regime. "We are scanning telephone numbers on the Thuraya to determine if the man had been in touch with Taliban leaders," police officer Rauf Bareach told AFP. Police refused to disclose the name of the detainee, who was captured in a raid on near 
Suspected militants blew up an electricity pylon and fired rockets at a paramilitary camp, officials said on Tuesday. 
