Kuwait's public prosecution Tuesday interrogated nine Islamist activists who founded the emirate's first political party on charges of plotting to "overthrow the government," the party said. "Members of the party were summoned to the public prosecution" for interrogation for establishing a political party, the Ummah (Nation) Party said in a statement. "The charge has been upgraded from a misdemeanor for violating the publication and assembly laws to a felony for establishing a political party to overthrow the regime," the statement said.
Party spokesman Ali al-Qahtani said that following nine hours of interrogations, the prosecution decided to free the nine party officials on a $1,700 bail each. Warrants were sent out late Monday to all the 15 office bearers to appear before the state security prosecution, but Qahtani said other members were abroad and would appear when they return. Sunni Islamist activists in January took the unprecedented step of launching the Ummah Party, which is also the first of its kind in the conservative Gulf region, saying it intends to promote pluralism and the peaceful rotation of power. The party elected 15 officials and sent letters to Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the speaker of Parliament and lawmakers urging them to amend Kuwaiti law to explicitly permit such parties. All 15 officials were interrogated at a police station shortly after the party was launched and charged with violating a law that bans public gatherings without prior government authorization. They were later released without bail. The statement said that the party has repeatedly denied any attempt to change the government and it is committed to "peaceful political work."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Hey, look! It's Dr. Smith from ''Lost In Space'', all decked out in an arab rig!
A member of the recently killed Arab mercenary Abu Dzeit's terrorist group has been detained in Chechnya.
The 27-year-old resident of Nazran, the largest city in Ingushetia (a republic neighboring on Chechnya on the west) was detained at the Kavkaz federal check point, the regional headquarters for the North Caucasus anti-terror operation reports.
"Preliminary investigation revealed that the detainee was a member of the terrorist group under the command of Arab mercenary Abu-Dzeit, who was killed in February," the report says.
Abu-Dzet's group perpetrated a number of terror acts against the population of Ingushetia and Chechnya. For instance, "the group took part in the assault on Ingushetia in June 2004, killing over 100 locals, law enforcement and federal forces officers", the HQ said.
Currently, investigators are verifying whether the detainee was involved in that event and other serious crimes against the population of North Caucasian republics of the Russian Federation.
This article starring:
ABU DZEIT
Chechnya
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/04/2005 1:04:07 AM ||
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AN American prisoner today testified he met French terrorist suspect Willie Brigitte, an alleged associate of accused Sydney terrorist Faheem Khalid Lodhi, while training for jihad in Pakistan. Yong Ki Kwon was giving evidence to Sydney's Central Local Court via video link from the US. Lodhi, a 34-year-old architect from Punchbowl, faces nine charges after allegedly plotting to bomb the National Electricity Group and several Sydney defence sites.
The prosecution in his committal hearing has alleged Lodhi trained with banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and acted as Brigitte's local contact. Kwon, who is serving an 11-year sentence in Virginia, today told the court he met Brigitte at a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in late 2001. "He went under the name Sala Hudin," the 29-year-old told the court. "I remember him telling me he used to live in France and that all his Muslim brothers had left France."
He said Brigitte was impatient to train and just wanted to be sent to fight for jihad. "I remember him telling me there was only one Sheik and that's Osama Bin Laden," said Kwon under questioning from prosecutor Geoffrey Bellew. Kwon, a Korean American, said he'd met another Australian by the name of Abu Asad while training in combat and weaponry at the camp. However, he had never met Lodhi, he said. Defence lawyer Philip Boulten, SC, attempted to discredit the witness, telling the court Kwon had lied in the past to help the case. Mr Boulten said while under questioning from FBI agents Kwon "just told them a pack of lies". The witness admitted to the court he had previously improvised effects and "made stuff up". Kwon also admitted he had later plea bargained with the FBI by pleading guilty to lesser charges for acting as a witness in other cases. He admitted hoping by giving evidence in Lodhi's case and several other international cases he could get his sentence further reduced.
This article starring:
ABU ASAD
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Defence lawyer Philip Boulten
FAHIM KHALID LODHI
Lashkar-e-Taiba
SALA HUDIN
Lashkar-e-Taiba
WILLIE BRIGITTE
Lashkar-e-Taiba
YONG KI KWON
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: God Save The World ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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The public prosecutor (OM) has claimed that Mohammed Bouyeri, the suspected killer of Theo van Gogh, played a leading role in the alleged terror network Hofstadgroep (the Hofstad Group). The claim was made in a preliminary hearing in Rotterdam Court involving 12 alleged members of the group and is an integral part of the prosecutor's case to prove the Hofstad group is a terror network. Up to now, it has been suggested B. was on the group's fringe. The prosecutor demanded on Tuesday that the court remand all 12 suspects in custody for another 90 days until investigations have been rounded off. The lawyers of three suspects demanded bail for their clients, while nine other lawyers were expected to address the court later in the day. Despite his request, defence lawyer Victor Koppe expects the court to refuse bail because of the nature of the allegations levelled against the men.
Koppe is the Netherlands' Jihadi All-Star lawyer. I'd like to know who pays his fees. Dollars to stroopwaffel he's paid in advance, in full, in cash.
Not all suspects appeared in court on Tuesday, but one of them who did, identified as Z. A., told the judge the Hofstadgroep does not exist.
"We had meetings, an' a secret gay handshake, an' a softball team, but we warn't no terror group, nossir. Unless you count Mahmoud's split finger fastball..."
He admitted being in the house of fellow suspect Jason W. in The Hague, but said W. was helping him find a home.
"I was all like 'Dude, can I crash at your pad," and he was all like "What do I look like? Rashim Realestate? Dude, you gotta go to www.craigslist.nl/caliphate."
A. will became a father for the second time shortly and he said he wants to return to his family. He denied discussing anything such as the Hofstadgroep with W..
Meanwhile, prosecutor Koos Plooy said the murder of filmmaker Van Gogh, meetings of radical Muslims in Mohammed B.'s Amsterdam home, and the exchange of material urging people to kill in the name of Islam, is proof the Hofstadgroep exists and is a terrorist network.
He also pointed to Samir Azzouz — an alleged central figure in the network — and allegations he was planning terrorist attacks against government buildings and other key installations. Rotterdam Court acquitted the 18-year-old man at the start of last month, but the prosecutor is appealing the ruling. Plooy stressed further that Hofstad suspects Jason W. and Ismail A. did not shun violence at the time of their arrest in The Hague last November. One of the suspects threw a hand grenade at police, injuring several officers. "Violence is ingrained in the ideology. There is no trace of legal actions, such as setting up a political party," Plooy said, adding that the 12 suspects were aiming to kill, spark unrest and disrupt society. The court is expected to rule on Wednesday afternoon on whether to release the suspects from custody. The following hearing is planned for 27 July, but will be another preliminary sitting.
I'm not sold that Bouyeri was the "leader" of Hofstad; the RB archives have a bunch of mentions of a mysterious shadowy Syrian who was calling the shots from elsewhere. But I'd certainly look to Mr. B to be one of the head Hard Boyz. "Leaders" don't usually end up dead. Bouyeri was supposed to be killed by the cops but he ran away instead.
Posted by: seafarious ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Everything you ever wanted to know about the Hofstad Group courtesy of Norwegian and Dutch intelligence.
Bottom Line: They were al-Qaeda and Bouyeri was important, but he wasn't by far at the top of the food chain.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/04/2005 2:35 Comments ||
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#2
Argh, let me just give you the URL:
http://rapporter.ffi.no/rapporter/2005/00376.pdf
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/04/2005 2:35 Comments ||
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#3
For the record, I think the prosecutor is foolish to make this claim. I understand their need to persuade the jury (and by proxy, the Dutch public) that Bouyeri represented more than a lone nutter gone bad. But trying to prove that he was the ringleader is wrong, because he wasn't, and the prosecution will lose credibility when it can't make the case.
#4
So true, Seafarious. The prosecutors are going to look awfully silly when they catch the real mastermind ringleader. They'll have to call him the hyper-leader or something, and then somebody will remember that the U.S. is supposed to be the hyperpower, and then what will we all do?
THE HAGUE: A 23-year-old Dutch man was sentenced to five months in prison, three months of it suspended, by a court in Utrecht for throwing a petrol bomb at a mosque, the news agency ANP said Tuesday. The Ijsselstein mosque had already been the target of an arson attempt but the young man, who was drunk at the time, had wanted to "finish the job", according to ANP. He threw a bottle filled with petrol at the mosque as he rode past on a motorbike, but it fell short and caused no damage to the building. The attempted firebombing of the mosque occurred three days after the murder of Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic militant last November 2 in Amsterdam. The murder provoked a number of anti-Muslim attacks, with 120 incidents registered during the month following it.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Only 2 months since he was to drunk to hit the target.
#3
This man is crazy, everybody knows that the headquarters of the islamic invasion (a.k.a. mosques) are full of ammo and explosives, he could have caused a massacre.
A MYSTERIOUS white powder emanating from a package from Bangladesh made 20 people sick and sent four to the hospital at Montreal's international airport today, according to media reports.
One of the injured people was taken away unconscious, radio and television reports said.
A white powder apparently emanating from a package that arrived from Bangladesh on a British Airways flight caused people in the surrounding area to feel sick, Radio-Canada said on its website.
The package, wrapped in brown paper, was deposited at a Canadian customs desk, where the accident took place, the reports said.
The substance in the white powder has yet to be determined.
Outside the airport, hazardous material teams in full protective gear sprayed people who came into contact with the powder with water before draping them in wool, media said.
Authorities on-site provided no further details of the incident.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
05/04/2005 2:08:54 AM ||
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What's Canuckia worried about? They can hang with the best of the anti-American bunch, so it's not like they'd be targets of terrorists....
The FBI arrested a Pentagon analyst Wednesday on charges that he passed classified information on Iran to employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group. Larry Franklin, 58, of Kearneysville, W.Va., turned himself in Wednesday morning, FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman said. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Virginia later in the day, Weierman said.
Additional: The charge is the first in an investigation dating back to 2001 about whether Israel improperly obtained classified U.S. information. Franklin, who specialized on Iran and Middle Eastern affairs, allegedly gave the information to two people not entitled to receive it at a luncheon meeting at a restaurant in Arlington, Va., in June 2003, FBI agent Catherine Hanna said in an affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint against Franklin. The people at the lunch were employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a law enforcement official said on condition of anonymity because they are not identified in court papers.
Franklin acknowledged at the lunch that the information was highly classified and asked that it not be used, Hanna said. It concerned possible attacks against U.S. troops by Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, the law enforcement official said. FBI agents twice searched AIPAC offices as part of the investigation. They also have interviewed two AIPAC employees about whether Franklin gave them classified information that wound up in Israel's hands.
AIPAC said it gave the FBI files related to those same two employees, who previously were identified - Steve Rosen, the director of research, and Keith Weissman, deputy director of foreign policy issues. Neither still works for the group. AIPAC declined to comment Wednesday, but has previously said it had done nothing wrong and was cooperating with the investigation. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
A Pentagon official said Franklin continued to work at the Pentagon until his arrest, but he could not immediately say what kind of work he performed or who was his immediate supervisor. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is under FBI investigation. However, Franklin's top secret security clearance was suspended in June 2004, the Justice Department said. He formerly worked in the office of policy undersecretary Douglas Feith.
The suspension followed a search of Franklin's West Virginia home that turned up 83 classified documents, Hanna said.
Too bad you aren't a former Clinton national security advisor, then this would just go away.
Franklin holds a doctorate in Asian studies and is a colonel in the Air Force Reserves.
I think we can safely assume that is soon to be "former" colonel.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/04/2005 11:22:04 AM ||
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yep, don't wannna give them Jooos any info, like GPS coords, that might help em....
lucky for him, the FBI (Dr. Stephen Hatfill still a person of interest?) is on the case.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2005 12:02 Comments ||
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#7
Rules are v eryclear, regardless of how you feel about it. If he passed out info he wasn't allowed to, he's a bad egg who needed to be nabbed. There are ways to share info, no need for free lancers out there.
Report urges U.S., Israel to consider pre-emptive attack against Tehran
By Aaron Klein More mind games with the MM? A bit long, article at link
Posted by: Anonymous5089 ||
05/04/2005 7:20:08 AM ||
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Khamenei has many times stated he would ''vaporize the Zionist entity'' if Iran obtained a nuclear bomb.
Words occasionally have consequences Mr.MM, now that you're on the verge of being able to make good on your threat, I certainly hope yours gets YOU vaporized in the very near future.
#3
Q.E.D., .com? I've been off away from computer for a while. Please ''enlighten'' me as to what that means.
Posted by: BA ||
05/04/2005 9:30 Comments ||
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#4
M.A.D., or ''Mutually Assured Destruction'' was a cold-war term that meant that neither the US nor the Soviet Union could launch a nuclear strike without receiving an equally destructive retaliation, ''destroying'' both sides. (I have hypothesized that M.A.D. has been enlarged into an anti-proliferation threat. By agreement among the major nuclear powers, it would work this way: if a country like Iran were to use a nuclear weapon aggressively, then their entire country would be attacked with airburst neutron bombs, killing all lifeforms, but leaving little contamination and not destroying buildings and other property. Then that now sterilized country would be given to the victim nation as ''reparations''.
#8
''Which was to be proved''...this from the same geometry teacher that gave my class, at the end of a proof, I.O.T.T.M.C.O. - and then turned around and waited for the class to ask.....
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/04/2005 12:23 Comments ||
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#9
Lol! Sheesh. I happily admit I thought it was usable in either a past or present tense - thus I had it precisely backwards since most of you indicate future tense. Thx for the corrections... All of them, lol!
Um, what about the topic? Y'know the TOPIC thingy? What the article is about? Lol!
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/04/2005 14:40 Comments ||
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#13
You mean Chief SohCahToa from Krakatoa? Man, when will it end? And I knew what M.A.D. stood for, just wondered what Q.E.D. stood for! Thanks all for taking me back to H.S. latin class!
Posted by: BA ||
05/04/2005 15:49 Comments ||
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#14
I would like an understanding of what was meant by the one comment to the effect that they needed a 100 % success in the attack.
I could see like but need gets into a strange logical area.
#15
I think you miss understand QED. ''That which was to be demonstrated'' is correct, but it means the preceding statement has proved/demonstrated what needed to be proved/demonstrtated prior to the statement.
Under Title 22 of the US Code, Section 2656f, the US State Department is required to submit to Congress when it re-assembles after the Easter recess every year a report on the state of international terrorism during the previous year, with recommendations regarding the role of state sponsors of international terrorism.
The report, as laid down by Congress, has to include, inter alia, information on terrorist groups and umbrella organizations under which falls any terrorist group known to be responsible for the kidnapping or death of any US citizen during the preceding five years; groups known to be financed by state sponsors of terrorism about which Congress has been notified during the past year in accordance with Section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act; and any other known international terrorist group that the secretary of state determines should be the subject of the report.
These annual reports, submitted since 1980, came to be known as the "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report and have enjoyed a certain credibility in the eyes of international counterterrorism analysts, who look forward to the publication of these annual statistics. However, some analysts, such as this writer, have been skeptical about the accuracy of the statistics provided in the reports, which are prepared not by the intelligence community, but by the Counterterrorism Division of the State Department.
This writer and others who share this skepticism have felt the State Department is not beyond fudging the statistics and manipulating the analyses in order to serve the policy interests of the current administration.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john ||
05/04/2005 6:28:14 PM ||
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This writer and others who share this skepticism have felt the State Department is not beyond fudging the statistics and manipulating the analyses in order to serve the policy interests of the current administration.
Does ''this writer'' -- a good pompous way to interject yourself into the piece your writing -- forget who works at Foggy Bottom? Aside from an anonymous few who call themselves the State Department Republican Underground (SDRU), there are very few folks likely to try to help Bush's policy.
No, if it were truly a help, it must be an accident, or a means of helping another entity.
#3
Oh... and ''This Writer'' forgot Beslan. I reckon ''This Writer'' has a good handle on what it is the US is to blame for in allowing a terrorist act to occur in a nation that was positively beligerant toward our armed intervention in Iraq.
#10
john - ever hear of ''EFL''? Know what it means?
I hope you're going to send Fred some cash for his bandwidth.
(BTW, when somebody posts something that long, I don't even bother reading it. Life's too short. Your mileage may vary.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/04/2005 19:51 Comments ||
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#11
I posted the articles by B. Raman because they represent a point of view not often seen in mainstream media.
This guy has had access to classified intel from a number of foreign governments for a long time and does know a little about terrorism.
Take his views into account the next time a #3 Al Qaeda is captured. There is an infinite supply of ''#3 Al Qaeda masterminds'' and their capture does not bring UBL any closer to justice.
Posted by: john ||
05/04/2005 19:58 Comments ||
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#12
Links are good. Links to long articles are particularly good.
Copying and pasting the whole thing here, not so good.
#13
The relationship between the ISI, Pakistan military leadership, and terrorist activity planned by Osama bin Laden while residing in Sudan was known to Canadian intelligence long before it was suspected in the USA. The Canadians were on to retired General Mirza Aslam Beg and Lt. General Hamid Gul, former director of ISI, both of whom were present at the Second Peoples Arab and Islamic Conference -- the second meeting of the so-called ''Terrorist International'' held in Khartoum on 2-4 December 1993. The Canadian Broadcasting Company for some unexplained reason was allowed to film (or obtained film on) some of the conference activity. The film has never been released, and it is said that Canadian intelligence studied the tape (and apparently the report of an informant) and learned much about the growth of the Islamist movement. Unfortunately, the Canadians hold their cards much closer to the chest than Americans do. Canucks rarely comment on hard intelligence dearly gathered.
#14
In keeping with the general helpfulness of the State Department, the PDF is encoded so that the normal copy / paste operations are not allowed and data must be extracted from the report by hand. Armed Liberal at Winds of Change and a helpful reader there have done so.
I'd love to quote the methodology statement here, but I don't feel like transcribing it and cannot copy / paste. Suffice it to say that the report clearly states that changes in methodology make it no longer comparable with prior year reports. In addition, the report was constructed around legal definitions of terrorism and some examples of exclusions are listed.
It appears that nearly all of the terrorist incidents in 2004 were confined to three countries, India with 45.9% of the incidents, Iraq with 30.8%, and Palestine with 6.1%. Those three countries total 82.8% of the total incidents. No other nation accounts for even 3% of the total.
The vast majority of terror incidents happened in places where there has been fighting for a generation or more. And, as Armed Liberal and other have pointed out, many of these terror movements are losing badly or are defeated and conducting dead-ender operations.
#15
Raman's views pretty much coincide with mine and I suspect most people who bother to think about the issue. The Evil Mastermind view of terrorism is largely an invention of the media seeking to explain why terrorism occurs. They (the media and tranzi-lefties) can't or won't admit that the societies and elements in society that produce terrorists are deeply flawed and must be changed in order to stop terrorism, and if that needs to be at gunpoint then so be it. The neocons see this clearly. They are under no illusion that killing OBL and Zarqawi will stop terrorism.
#16
These annual reports, submitted since 1980, came to be known as the ''Patterns of Global Terrorism''.
So what? That's one of the most stupid thing I've read in a long time. What has been done with these reports before 9/11? And why should US Congress spend time and money to tell the world that terrorism is a fact? Let the UN do useless satistics, that's all they can do anyway and let the US do what they do best: Action.
DUBAI, May 4 (Reuters) - Iraqi militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it was behind a suicide bombing which killed at least 46 people at Kurdish party offices in northern Iraq on Wednesday, according to an Internet statement. Addressing leading Kurdish politician Massoud Barzani the group vowed to mount more attacks on Kurds. The group's bloodiest attack was a 2004 twin suicide bombing -- also in Arbil and targeting Kurdish party offices -- which killed 117 people.
"Be aware you apostate (Barzani) that we are preparing more for you so wait for it sooner rather than later," said the statement posted on the group's Web site.
"As we hail our martyred brother we tell you Jewish Massoud that this attack which shook your throne is in response to our brothers who are being tortured in your prisons and to the infidel peshmerga forces which surrendered themselves to the Crusaders," it added. The statement could not be immediately authenticated. "We launched upon them this heroic lion who broke through all their fortified checkpoints to blow up his car amid this group of infidels. There was a huge explosion which ripped their bodies apart and killed more than 80 infidels," it added. The statement lashed out at Kurds who it said fought alongside U.S. forces against Muslims in Falluja, Mosul, Baghdad and elsewhere.
Jamal Abdel Hamid, health minister of the Kurdish regional government, said 46 people were killed and 70 were wounded. But another health ministry official in Arbil put the death toll at around 60, with 150 people wounded. The bloodshed came a day after a new government was sworn in and three months after historic elections that Iraqis hoped would lead to improved security.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/04/2005 10:21:49 AM ||
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AL leader killed in 'crossfire' at Keraniganj A thana-level Awami League leader was killed in 'encounter' with the Rapid Action Battalion at Keraniganj in Dhaka Tuesday night, raising the crossfire death toll to 284 since June 2004.
We had another 'encounter' just yesterday, seems to be a new tactic where they don't bother to arrest and interogate the suspect before their unfortunate demise.
The RAB sources said a patrol team of RAB-2 in the evening went to Nazirabad Chandipara on information that a gang was there.
As the RAB team reached the spot at about 8:30pm, the criminals opened fire on them, who also fired back.
"It's the law! Git em boys!"
Later, the RAB men found one of the criminals, identified as Mafizul Islam Dud Miah, dead on the spot. The elite force also recovered two firearms along with ammunition from the scene. The RAB said Dud Miah was wanted in more than a dozen criminal cases, including four murders, and involved in criminal activities in the Lalbagh, Hazaribagh and Kamrangirchar of Old Town.
Meanwhile, claiming Dud Miah as the joint convener of Meghna thana unit of the Awami League, the party's general secretary, Abdul Jalil, MP, in a statement said the RAB arrested him from the court premises without any warrant, when he went to the court to appear in a case at the speedy trial tribunal Tuesday noon.
Oh, so maybe they did arrest him, before they didn't.
Condemning the arrest, Jalil, in the statement, demanded his unconditional release and said the government would be responsible if any harm was done to him.
"Harm? We didn't harm him. Oh, sure, he's shot full of holes, but that wasn't us that done it. It must of been his boys."
Posted by: Steve ||
05/04/2005 9:58:34 AM ||
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#1
I think they will soon need to patent this new method of doing business.
#2
Someone needs to write an essay on ''Due Process of Law in Bangladesh''. I think it might help us understand what the heck is going on in these cases, because I am just baffled. And that ''Furry paws, don't fail me now!'' comment from yesterday's Gazette was priceless.
#3
''Encounter Journal'' sounds like the name of a one-night-stand magazine ...
To be fair, shooting the guy in a gunfight is a lot more plausible than the ''crossfire'' stuff. Guess the human rights groups convinced them to start coming up with better writers ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/04/2005 17:22 Comments ||
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#4
IMHO the world needs a Best of Rantburg book. With a decent editor it could be a real winner - educational and funny.
A nephew of Saddam Hussein suspected of helping the Iraqi insurgency has been arrested near the ousted leader's hometown, the Iraqi government says. Ayman Sabawi Ibrahim was arrested at the beginning of May during a raid north of Tikrit, the government said. He and his brothers have been active in the anti-US insurgency by "providing financial support, weapons and explosives," it said in a statement. Ayman's father, Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, was captured in February. Mr Tikriti is the half-brother of Saddam Hussein on his mother's side. Formerly the head of the intelligence service, he was number 36 on a US list of the 55 most-wanted members of the ousted regime. Another of his sons was seized on 10 April.
This article starring:
AIMAN SABAWI IBRAHIM
Iraqi Insurgency
SABAWI IBRAHIM HASAN AL TIKRITI
Iraqi Insurgency
Posted by: Steve ||
05/04/2005 9:18:32 AM ||
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Goodness, there seem to be almost as many Saddam nephews as al Quaeda #3s. ;-)
U.S. soldiers and Afghan police backed by war planes and helicopters clashed with insurgents in the southeastern mountains near Pakistan, and about 20 suspected militants and one policeman were killed, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Six Americans were wounded. Tuesday's clash, one of the deadliest in recent months, occurred in Dehchopan district of Zabul province, the U.S. military said in a statement. Zabul lies in a swath of Afghan territory along the border with Pakistan where Taliban-led militants opposed to the government of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai have revived their 3-year-old insurgency after a winter lull. Clashes and bombings in recent weeks have killed dozens of rebels and Afghan forces, several civilians, a U.S. soldier and a Romanian soldier. The military said the American soldiers wounded Tuesday were in stable condition, and two of them had returned to duty. The other four would be flown to a U.S. military hospital in Germany for treatment.
The fighting began when gunmen fired on a group of U.S. soldiers and Afghan police investigating a reported beating of an Afghan man, the military said. U.S. troops and the policemen "cordoned off the insurgent forces by use of small-arms fire and support from coalition fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft," it said. "Initial reports indicate approximately 20 insurgents were killed and one wounded," the statement said. The statement said five Afghan police officers also were wounded, but it cautioned that the casualty figures were still preliminary. Six insurgents were detained. The U.S. military gave no details on the identities or affiliations of the suspected insurgents killed Tuesday but said a local leader also was detained after villagers "reported him as a Taliban member." The military said it was trying to organize assistance to the village, which was not identified.
Posted by: ed ||
05/04/2005 8:09:55 AM ||
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Fox News sez al-Libbi's been jugged in Pakland. Looking for confirmation...
al-Qaida Suspect Arrested in Pakistan Abu Farraj al-Libbi, a senior al-Qaida suspect wanted in two attempts to assassinate President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has been arrested in Pakistan, the government said Wednesday. Al-Libbi, a native of Libya who authorities say is a close associate of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and acted as al-Qaida's operational chief in Pakistan, was arrested earlier this week, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press. "This is a very important day for us," Ahmed said. He would provide no details on where al-Libbi was captured or where he is being held.
Ahmed said the Pakistani government had been offering a $1 million reward for information leading to al-Libbi's capture, though it was not immediately clear if it would be paid. Officials said earlier Wednesday that they were questioning two foreigners on suspicion of links with al-Qaida. Two security officials said the suspects were captured after a shootout Monday in Mardan, about 30 miles north of Peshawar, capital of the deeply conservative North West Frontier Province. One official said the suspects were in the custody of a Pakistani intelligence agency but declined to give more details, including the suspects' nationalities.
Al-Libbi is accused of masterminding two bombings against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in December 2003. The military leader escaped injury but 17 others were killed in one of the attacks. He is accused of taking over as al-Qaida's operational chief in Pakistan after the March 1, 2003, arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the terror network's alleged number three. Mohammed was later handed over to U.S. custody and his whereabouts are unknown.
Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, named the Libyan as the chief suspect in the bombings against him. He was among six suspects identified as Pakistan's "Most Wanted Terrorists" in a poster campaign last year. In the poster, he appeared in a photo as a dapper man with a short beard, wearing a Western suit and tie. The other suspects were all Pakistanis, linked to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim militant group believed tied to al-Qaida.
I'm believed to be tied to my Mom, too...
Al-Libbi is not on the FBI's list of the globe's Most Wanted Terrorists. One of the suspects, Amjad Hussain Farooqi, was killed in a shootout with security forces in southern Pakistan in September. Farooqi, a senior member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was accused of plotting the bombings against Musharraf with al-Libbi and of involvement in the kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi in 2002.
Pakistan has handed over about 700 al-Qaida suspects to the United States, including Mohammed, Sept. 11 planner Ramzi Binalshibh and al-Qaida senior operative Abu Zubaydah.
This article starring:
ABU FARRAJ AL LIBI
al-Qaeda
ABU ZUBAIDAH
al-Qaeda
AMJAD HUSEIN FARUQI
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Daniel Pearl
KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMED
al-Qaeda
RAMZI BINALSHIBH
al-Qaeda
Rashid Ahmed
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2005 7:41:08 AM ||
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#1
On Beeb too.. get the panties ready..
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/04/2005 8:16 Comments ||
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#2
He's got Libbi Libbi Libbi
On his mugshot mugshot mugshot
#4
AdditionalOne of the officials said 11 more terror suspects - including three Uzbeks, an Afghan and seven Pakistanis - were arrests before dawn Wednesday in the Bajor tribal region. The official would not say what prompted authorities to launch the raid or whether it was linked to al-Libbi's capture.
The intelligence officials said authorities were led to al-Libbi's hideout by a tip that foreigners had been spotted in the area. The suspect was held overnight at a military facility in Mardan, then transferred by helicopter to the capital, Islamabad, the officials said.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/04/2005 9:48 Comments ||
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#5
1. If it was a tip, that means the coppers are getting cooperation even up in NWFP. At least some locals arent so afraid of the jihadis anymore. OR those locals have been well paid off by our side.
2. Pakis get to squeeeze him first? Given controversy on US interrogation techniques, better to let Pakis have a nice long shot at him?
#6
Given controversy on US interrogation techniques, better to let Pakis have a nice long shot at him?
Eh? I thought letting other people, with fewer scruples, interrogate was one of the ''controversies''.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/04/2005 10:32 Comments ||
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#7
I love controversies :-)
Hope his ticker holds out long enough for it to be a reallllllly painful interrogation
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2005 11:15 Comments ||
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#8
Since he is alleged to have been behind two assassination attempts on Musharef, I suspect that the Paki interrogation of this guy will be considerably more intense than ours would have been. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
#9
Ahhh. Another brave Islamist who has no problems sending young men and women (even handicaped) to die for the cause, yet they somehow escape death in thier religious fever, and just get caught. Which, if the Ted Kennedy's of the world are right, this is worse than death, with all the unaccounted panties in the world.
#12
ah RC, thats renditition. When we send somebody under OUR custody to the hands of some country with less scruples. But in this case he was CAUGHT in Pakistan, BY the Pakistanis. No rendition. No problem. And as others have said, the Pakis have plenty to ask him about.
#14
I think it'll be short and sweet. Wouldn't want the names of any friendly ISI guys to come out in questioning, would we? Do they have crossfires in Pakland?
#15
But what's the difference. If unscrupulous country A has a warrant for Bob Jihadi, and we hand them over, how's that different than if UCA caught him in the first place?
Not that it matters, as far as I'M concerned. Terrorists have no rights.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/04/2005 14:18 Comments ||
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#16
Well I suppose it depends on the solidity of UCA's warrant, our extradition treaty with UCA, etc. If send a guy to UCA on a more or less made up warrant, its pretty clear we're using UCA. If UCA has the guy, there aint nothing for us to do - nobody can ask us to snatch the guy from UCA to protect him from torture. So it DOES matter.
#22
He's Libyan, Penguin. The splotches are what his skin color should be, but he hasn't enough melanin to tan the rest. And he's been losing his hair, and his eyes slant oddly. I'd say he wasn't a favourite with the girls ;-)
#25
I hope he's on the midnight flight to Diego Garcia where the best interrogation methods will be used. Torture isn't necessary to breakdown this pussy and have him babbling about his associates
#28
TW: The splotches are what his skin color should be, but he hasn't enough melanin to tan the rest. And he's been losing his hair, and his eyes slant oddly.
I think that's correct. The guy was trying to blend in by coloring his skin using on one of those tan-in-a-bottle formulas. A Libyan should have the skin complexion of an Italian - Pakistanis are usually brown-skinned. The splotches are probably from the Pakistani police washing the tanning solution off to verify his ethnicity.
#31
Other reports have mentioned psoriasis. This looks like a natural skin problem to me. I have seen quite a few similar in Australian Aboriginal people, mostly women. My guess would be his parents had widely different skin pigmentation.
#34
Looks like he needs a good shave... with a pair of wide-lip pliers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/04/2005 20:03 Comments ||
Top||
#35
He is the latest in a long line of ''Al Qaeda #3''s
Don't forget
Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Abu Zubeida, Yassir al-Jaziri, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
Lot more where he came from
UBL is no closer to being captured
Posted by: john ||
05/04/2005 20:21 Comments ||
Top||
#36
And that means ... what, John?
While it would be satisfying to capture OBL, doing so won't really have all that much of an impact on the Islamacist movement that has been seeded for decades with Wahabist money and Salafist hate. And it won't change the repression, economic poverty and lack of basic education that plagues most of the Islamic countries, which in turn makes Islamacism attractive to some/many of their people.
I think we all get your point here and in other posts about OBL, but it doesn't seem like an impressive point to me. We'll unravel this network while others labor to extend it and over time we'll see who has the greater momentum and endurance.
Posted by: too true ||
05/04/2005 20:30 Comments ||
Top||
#37
In the Business biz they call it, ''opportunity for rapid advancement.'' Lots of #4s are ambitious to move up a level... do let's continue helping them out.
#38
The islamists thrive on an illusion of muslim superiority, invinvibility and power.
The capture of UBL would be a terrible blow to their dignity. While it would not stop terrorism, it may decrease the number of willing followers.
Every few months the press goes gaga whenever Musharraf hands over another #3.
He has to be made to start draining the terror swamp.
Posted by: john ||
05/04/2005 20:53 Comments ||
Top||
#39
Handsome chap , if you took away the bad looks , dodgy eyes and poor skin condition , he looks like everybody's passport photo :)
Oooh and good news !
An Iraqi carrying hidden explosives set them off in a police recruitment center in northern Iraq Wednesday, killing at least 50 Iraqis, the U.S. military said.
The attack occurred in Irbil, a Kurdish city 220 miles north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/04/2005 4:18:31 AM ||
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#1
Reports now say 60 dead. Time take the war to the Sunni cities, towns and neighbourhoods, starting with Mosul.
#3
Man, that must've been one huge explosion. I pray for the Kurds who lost loved ones in this attack, but this proves even more we need to put these guys down and fast (like a rabid dog).
Posted by: BA ||
05/04/2005 9:27 Comments ||
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#4
Close the fricking road to Syria and the border crossing.
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday suspended an order to extend the detention of two activists of the Hizbut Tahrir for another 90 days. The LHC has ordered the authorities to release Hakeem Ihsanur Rehman and Abuzar Abdullah after they had furnished surety bonds of Rs 100,000 each. They were detained on the order of the Home Department under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance on October 10, 2004 for three months.
They moved the court on the plea that they had no past record of involvement in any anti-state activity nor had they acted contrary to the public interest.
"Pure as the driven snow, yer honor!"
This article starring:
ABUZAR ABDULLAH
Hizbut Tahrir
HAKIM IHSANUR REHMAN
Hizbut Tahrir
Hizbut Tahrir
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/04/2005 12:56:50 AM ||
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GAZA - Palestinian police have arrested two Hamas Islamic terrorists militants on their way to fire rockets into Israel after a gunfight in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday.
They'll make bail on 'recognizance' this morning.
The clash on Monday night was the first between police and militants since President Mahmoud Abbas ordered security forces to use an "iron fist" to maintain the ceasefire with Israel. The incident sent tension soaring in Gaza, the main Hamas powerbase.
Hamas said the terrorists militants detained in the northern Gaza Strip were not planning to fire rockets, but confirmed that they were armed -- defying a recent order that only Palestinian security forces should carry weapons on the streets. "The three were in a car, en route to fire rockets, when police waved for them to stop. Gunmen opened fire at the police, forcing policemen to fire back," said Interior Ministry spokesman Toufiq Abu Khoussa.
"Whatcha doin' with them-thar rockets, boys?"
"We ain't going to fire them, we're just, um, ridin' around with 'em!"
"Uh-huh, hokay, but you'll have to come with us."
"No we ain't! Reach for the sky!"
"Policemen controlled the situation, took away the car, arrested the gunmen and took away their arms," he said. One of the men in the car ran away, escaping arrest.
And no crossfire.
Abu Khoussa said it was a violation of the agreement by militant factions in March to go along with the ceasefire that Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed to uphold at least until the end of this year.
The Hamas gunmen accused the police of opening fire first and said there was no plan to launch rockets. Another militant group, Islamic Jihad, said it carried out a rocket attack on Israel from nearby in northern Gaza shortly before the Hamas men were arrested. Hamas, which is sworn to destroying Israel, said it was committed to "maintaining calm" and accused the Palestinian Authority of trying to curry favour with Washington at the expense of local unity. "We demand the men be freed in order that Palestinian unity be maintained," said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
Because unity is a cardinal feature of Paleo political life, ya know.
This article starring:
Interior Ministry spokesman Toufiq Abu Khoussa
SAMI ABU ZUHRI
Hamas
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 ||
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The incident sent tension soaring in Gaza, the main Hamas powerbase.
Ladieeeeees and Gentlemen, let the fireworks begin!!!
At least six people were killed and six, including two bystanders, were injured, when two groups exchanged heavy fire in front of Balochistan University on Tuesday morning. The police have registered a case and also made raids to arrest the culprits involved in the incident. It remained unclear why the two groups exchanged fire.
One killed in blast: A powerful blast jolted Qila Abdullah, a border city of Balochistan, on Tuesday, killing one man and injuring three. Salahuddin, the nazim of Qila Abdullah, said that some workers were unloading a truck containing metal scrap from Afghanistan when all of a sudden a bomb went off. Pakistan has been getting scrap from Afghanistan, where a 30-year long war has destroyed many tanks, aircrafts and other vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Security at the under-construction Baglihar project has been beefed up after intercepts revealed militants were planning to target it and kidnap foreigners working there, a top police official said. "We have activated high security in and around the Baglihar power project in Chanderkot area of Doda district in Kashmir after intercepting militants' conversation of targeting the project," Doda-Udhampur range Deputy Inspector General of Police Satvir Gupta told PTI on Tuesday. "Hizbul Mujahideen intercepts by the police revealed that they were planning to target the project site and their main objective could be to kidnap foreigners working there," he said.
The DIG said that besides throwing a security blanket around the project, all the six foreigners working at the Rs 70 billion project had been provided special security, he said. "Each foreigner has been given a personal security officer and security pickets have also been set up in the residential area of these engineers," he said. About a fortnight back the Union Power Ministry had also told the state government that it had received a note from the Prime Minister's Office that militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen was planning a suicide attack on the project. Gupta said plainclothes security personnel had been deployed to monitor suspicious people.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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A top Taleban commander and dozens of his men have surrendered to the Afghan government as part of an arms-for-amnesty scheme, a military official said yesterday. Mulla Abdul Khaliq, locally-known as Haji Malam, and 40 of his guerrillas Monday surrendered to Afghanistan's military forces in south-central Uruzgan province, Muslim Hamed, the military commander of southern region told AFP. "He was a big Taleban regional commander. His surrender will help in security in the region," the general said. He said Khaliq was organizing most of the anti-government insurgencies in the Uruzgan area where the remnants of the Taleban have been frequently attacking government targets and US-led troops since their regime was toppled by a US invasion in late 2001. "Yes, he was involved in the anti-government and anti-coalition activities in the past," Hamed said. "His surrender is a great success for the government," he added. The general said that the surrendered men turned in 64 AK-47 rifles and several rocket launchers, heavy machineguns and ammunitions.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai offered an olive branch to rank-and-file Taleban fighters last year and said all but a hardcore of 150 militants wanted for human rights violations would be able to rejoin the political process. On April 28, 17 members of the Hizb-e-Islami militant group laid down their arms and surrendered to Afghan authorities in the southeastern Khost province. The Hizb-e-Islami is led by former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who is on the United States' most wanted list of terror suspects. His Islamic conservative group is allied with the Taleban militants. On Monday night, in a pair of rare television interviews the Taleban's former Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawkil called for peace talks between the ousted Islamic regime and Karzai's government.
This article starring:
GULBUDIN HEKMATYAR
Hizb-e-Islami
HAJI MALAM
Taliban
MULLA ABDUL KHALIQ
Taliban
Muslim Hamed
Hizb-e-Islami
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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MSM: Damn! Now where did that quagmire get off to.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has appeared on Al Jazeera television to appeal for the release of 63-year-old Australian hostage Douglas Wood, as a special hostage crisis team arrived in Iraq. Mr Downer told the Arabic TV station that Mr Wood has a serious heart condition.
Al Jazeera aired the two-minute DVD showing Mr Wood flanked by armed militants and pleading for his life. Mr Downer outlined the Government's Iraq policy to the Arabic TV station's Middle Eastern audience, including the stance of not negotiating with terrorists or paying ransoms. Mr Downer says it is possible the group behind Mr Wood's abduction is monitoring Australia's reaction closely. "There are 20 million of us - it's hard to organise - but how we as a country respond to this is going to be very important," Mr Downer told ABC TV's Lateline. "If they feel they're getting real traction in Australia from the kidnapping, that will encourage them. I think the way Australia so far has responded - which is of expressions of horror and outrage, but there's no sense in Australia that we should cave in to the demands of kidnappers, that has so far been a good response."
'Not a well man
Mr Downer says the Australian Government has been in close contact with the man's family and he has serious health problems. "I made the point in the interview with Al Jazeera that Douglas Wood is not a well man," he said. "He has a very serious heart condition, he has a problem with one of his eyes as well. We are concerned about his health in any case and being held hostage in this way, being abducted, is only going to put further strain on his health."
The Foreign Minister says the Australian Government has received information that Mr Wood may have been kidnapped from his own apartment, or on his way to work. But Mr Downer could not say whether that means kidnappers specifically targeted the Australian, or whether he was a random victim. He says Mr Wood may have been captured up to two days before the release of the DVD. Mr Downer says he is determined to do everything he can to get Mr Wood out of Iraq unharmed. "We're making a very big effort to [get Mr Wood out alive], so are our friends and allies, and so are the Iraqis." He says he believes he will gather enough information in the next two days to judge the situation. "The information flow is really starting now, so I'll be in a much better position to judge in a day or two than I am now."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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At least 15 people were killed and nearly 40 wounded yesterday in a bomb blast at a Mogadishu stadium where Somalia's transitional prime minister was addressing a large crowd, police and hospital officials said.
Got a minister of information, do they?
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, on his first visit to the capital itself since taking office last year, was unhurt by the explosion that occurred just about eight meters from where he was speaking, they said. Officials close to Gedi said the bomb, initially reported to have been a grenade, detonated while in the possession of a bodyguard of a senior local militia commander but it was unclear if it had been intentional.
Yesterday it was Mahmoud fumbling a grenade. Today it might have been a bomb. Tomorrow it will be...
The bodyguard was among those killed in the blast but the officials said they could not immediately determine whether the prime minister had been the target of a suicide bombing or even an assassination attempt. "It was not a hand grenade, it was a bomb," one senior Somali official said. "We're not ruling out anything, including whether the prime minister was target." Gedi appeared to want to keep speaking after the explosion but was whisked away from the site by his security team, according to an AFP correspondent on the scene.
"Shuddup and get in the gawddamned technical car!"
Several thousand Somalis who were listening to the speech fled the stadium in panic as the dead and wounded, several of whom suffered serious injuries, were taken to local hospitals, police and witnesses said. Abdi Hassan, a senior Mogadishu police official, told AFP that at least eight people had died in the blast and that several of the wounded had been seriously injured. "At least eight of them are in very critical condition," he said. Nursess in Mogadishu's Madinah and Al-Hayat hospitals said seven more died, bringing the toll to 15. "Three more people died here while they were undergoing treatment while four others are in a critical condition," a nurse at Madinah Hospital told AFP. At the nearby Al-Hayat clinic, four other people succumbed to internal injuries and bleeding, a medical official said. They said at least 38 people had been treated in the hospitals with fairly serious wounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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somebody deny one of the thugs his daily QUAT ration?
Militants yesterday gunned down a town council chairman and three policemen at Pattan, 29 km from here in north Kashmir's Baramulla district. Police said a group of four militants sprayed Mohammad Ramzan Mian and two of his security guards with automatic gunfire early in the morning. All three died instantly. The security guards were identified as Zahoor Ahmad and Riyaz Ahmad. Mian was shopping in Pattan's main market after he had supervised a cleanliness drive in the town when the assailants opened fire.
"A cleanliness drive? He must be killed!"
The militants also bravely fled with the automatic rifles of the dead guards. A senior police officer who did not want to be identified said a police party that was sent to the scene was fired upon by the militants and a policeman killed. The dead policeman was identified as Mohammad Altaf. More than half a dozen elected municipal councilors have been killed in militant attacks since civic elections in February.
Separately, security forces shot dead six infiltrators on the de facto border with Pakistan, the Defense Ministry said. The suspected militants were caught crossing the Line of Control that divides Kashmir in the Krishna Gahti area of Poonch district, 245 km northwest of Jammu.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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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.
Party spokesman 
AN American prisoner today testified he met French terrorist suspect 
THE HAGUE: A 23-year-old Dutch man was sentenced to five months in prison, three months of it suspended, by a court in Utrecht for throwing a petrol bomb at a mosque, the news agency ANP said Tuesday. The Ijsselstein mosque had already been the target of an arson attempt but the young man, who was drunk at the time, had wanted to "finish the job", according to ANP. He threw a bottle filled with petrol at the mosque as he rode past on a motorbike, but it fell short and caused no damage to the building. The attempted firebombing of the mosque occurred three days after the murder of Dutch film maker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic militant last November 2 in Amsterdam. The murder provoked a number of anti-Muslim attacks, with 120 incidents registered during the month following it.
A thana-level Awami League leader was killed in 'encounter' with the Rapid Action Battalion at Keraniganj in Dhaka Tuesday night, raising the crossfire death toll to 284 since June 2004. 
U.S. soldiers and Afghan police backed by war planes and helicopters clashed with insurgents in the southeastern mountains near Pakistan, and about 20 suspected militants and one policeman were killed, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Six Americans were wounded. Tuesday's clash, one of the deadliest in recent months, occurred in Dehchopan district of Zabul province, the U.S. military said in a statement. Zabul lies in a swath of Afghan territory along the border with Pakistan where Taliban-led militants opposed to the government of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai have revived their 3-year-old insurgency after a winter lull. Clashes and bombings in recent weeks have killed dozens of rebels and Afghan forces, several civilians, a U.S. soldier and a Romanian soldier. The military said the American soldiers wounded Tuesday were in stable condition, and two of them had returned to duty. The other four would be flown to a U.S. military hospital in Germany for treatment.
Officials said earlier Wednesday that they were questioning two foreigners on suspicion of links with al-Qaida. Two security officials said the suspects were captured after a shootout Monday in Mardan, about 30 miles north of Peshawar, capital of the deeply conservative North West Frontier Province. One official said the suspects were in the custody of a Pakistani intelligence agency but declined to give more details, including the suspects' nationalities.
GAZA - Palestinian police have arrested two Hamas Islamic 
At least six people were killed and six, including two bystanders, were injured, when two groups exchanged heavy fire in front of Balochistan University on Tuesday morning. The police have registered a case and also made raids to arrest the culprits involved in the incident. It remained unclear why the two groups exchanged fire.
Security at the under-construction Baglihar project has been beefed up after intercepts revealed militants were planning to target it and kidnap foreigners working there, a top police official said. "We have activated high security in and around the Baglihar power project in Chanderkot area of Doda district in Kashmir after intercepting militants' conversation of targeting the project," Doda-Udhampur range Deputy Inspector General of Police Satvir Gupta told PTI on Tuesday. "
A top Taleban commander and dozens of his men have surrendered to the Afghan government as part of an arms-for-amnesty scheme, a military official said yesterday. 
Foreign Minister 
At least 15 people were killed and nearly 40 wounded yesterday in a bomb blast at a Mogadishu stadium where Somalia's transitional prime minister was addressing a large crowd, police and hospital officials said.
