Suspected leftist guerrillas carrying assault rifles swept into a southern Colombia town Tuesday and attacked government offices, killing six town councilors and five others, authorities said. The guerrillas, believed to be members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, opened fire at a local council meeting in the town of Puerto Rico, 200 miles south of Bogota, said Oscar Galvis, an official with Colombia's secret police DAS.
Oscar Andres Nunez, director of the National Federation of Town Councils said several trucks full of FARC guerrillas arrived to the town's main square, where the town hall is located, and began shooting. He said the guerrillas also fired on and threw grenades at a police station located in the town center. Police identified the victims as six town council members, four police officers and a town official. Puerto Rico town councilman Julio Casas said he saw a pickup truck zoom into the plaza, then bullets started flying. "So I then escaped through a window, climbed a wall and jumped into a patio," Casas told The Associated Press by telephone. "I heard the shots and the screams of my colleagues."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Shouldn't these guys should be easy to find seeing they're wearing those big ass armbands that say FARC on them?
El Salvador and Nicaragua said Tuesday they were on the alert for two al-Qaida terror suspects, but U.S. and Interpol officials downplayed the reports. Officials in El Salvador and Nicaragua said they were on the lookout for a Yemeni man known only as Altuwiti and Ahmed Salim Swedan, a 36-year-old Kenyan on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists. But they said there was no evidence that the suspected al-Qaida figures were within their borders.
Salvadoran Immigration Department spokesman Ramon Hernandez said there was no evidence they were even in Central America. U.S. Homeland Security official Marc A. Raimondi said the agency "has no hard information at this time about the whereabouts of these individuals." Angel Miguel Barquero, in charge of Interpol in San Salvador, said no new warnings had been issued recently on the two men. Nicaragua's Interior Ministry, which is in charge of internal security, announced earlier Tuesday that it had alerted all border posts because the two suspected terrorists were "possibly" in Central America. Nicaraguan Deputy Interior Minister Avil Ramirez said his country received the report from El Salvador, the only Latin American nation with troops in Iraq and which in the past has received al-Qaida-type threats.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
ALICANTE — An aeronautical engineer has been arrested for allegedly designing missiles for the Palestinian terrorist organisations Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Marwan Ismail Dahman, who was born in Gaza, in Palestine but is a naturalised Spaniard, was arrested in Benidorm in the Alicante province, the Spanish daily El Pais reported.
He allegedly offered to design a new type of Qasam missile which can potentially be used for attacks on Israel. Police sources said plans for the missile design, which had been sent by fax to the two Palestinian terrorist organisations were found in Dahman's house. Dahman was helping to improve the design of the Qasam 2 missile.
Days earlier, the Israeli army had killed the original designer of this type of missile, Adnan al Ghul, in Gaza.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 15:05 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Israel killed three Palestinian militants and a civilian bystander on Friday in an attempt to capture a master Hamas bomb-maker, another blow to efforts to save a troubled new Middle East peace plan.
Blood smeared olive trees outside the family home of Adnan al-Ghul in a Gaza Strip village after the Israeli raid, which reduced the house to rubble. Relatives said al-Ghul was not there at the time and remained "alive and free".
The right-wing Israeli government's persistent "track-and-kill" swoops on militants behind a suicide bombing campaign and the militants' unwillingness to cease fire unless Israel backs off has bedevilled attempts to cement a ceasefire.
The United States, which three weeks ago unfurled the "road map" plan for a Palestinian state co-existing alongside Israel, said on Thursday a ceasefire by militants would not be enough to advance the most ambitious Middle East peace drive for years.
It urged European Union and Arab countries to cut off support for the political wing of the Hamas movement, which has spearheaded a 33-month-old revolt against Israeli occupation.
But Hamas boasts considerable popularity both for "resistance" and welfare services in impoverished Palestinian areas blockaded by Israel, and Palestinian officials said US calls to crush the movement could provoke civil war.
Witnesses said Israeli troops swept into the village of Mughraqa in central Gaza before dawn on Friday and surrounded the al-Ghul home, precipitating a clash.
They said three helicopter gunships and tanks fired into the area, killing al-Ghul's 15-year-old son and his 21-year-old nephew, both of whom were also Hamas members, as well as an operative of the allied Islamic Jihad faction. (more, click link)
El Farouk Co. for Renting Cars
Gaza Remal â Charles De Gaulle Str.
Telephone: 08-2842755 Fax: 08-2838887
To the President of the State of Palestine, Yasser Arafat,
Allow me to inform you that the martyr Bilal âAdnan Al-Ghul rented from our company a gray Toyota car, model 2000. However, the occupying forces bombed the car with missiles from an Apache helicopter, destroying completely the car and Bilal was killed in this action.
We are requesting from you to help us with a payment for the cost of the car, which is valued at $16,000.
Sincerely,
El Farouk Co. for Renting Cars
[A note follows in the handwriting of Arafat]:
To the Ministry of Finance â please pay $9,000
18/9/01
Note: Bilal âAdnan Al-Ghul â the son of âAdnan Al-Ghul, a senior operational activist of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and involved in the Hamas arms production network. Balal was killed in an assassination attempt on his father on 22 August 2001. His father, âAdnan Al-Ghul, was mentioned in the interrogation of Yusuf Mikdad as a member of the Hamas squad that carries out mortar bomb firing. Yusuf Mikdad, at the order of his commander Nabil Hudhud, was requested to join this squad in order to fire mortar bombs.
A car bomb has exploded in Madrid after a warning was given to a newspaper in the name of the Eta Basque militants. Three people are reported to have been injured in the blast in the north of the Spanish capital at 0730 GMT. Police had been able to clear most of the area after the Basque Gara paper - often contacted before such attacks - passed on the warning it had received. The Spanish parliament recently backed a plan to allow peace talks with Eta if the group lays down its arms. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero condemned the attack during a speech in the Senate shortly after the blast, reiterating the government's goal to combat and end terrorism.
"I want to share with you my condemnation for this violent act, for this act of terror," he said. "The only fate that the terrorist group Eta has is to lay down weapons and dissolve." Opposition Popular Party spokesman Pio Garcia Escudero expressed support for the government, according to Efe, adding that the latest attack "does not seem to show a desire to negotiate, rather an attempt to apply pressure". Reports say the explosives were packed in backpacks inside the van. Police were able to cordon off the area before the explosion
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/25/2005 05:53 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
JFM, How much warning time before the blast? Why so many wounded? Was it a crowded plaza?
Posted by: ed ||
05/25/2005 10:51 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Hmm. In the 3/11 subway attack they put the explosives in planted backpacks, too. Same method, same people? And this time Eta claimed responsibility. This lends credence to recent claims that the Socialists and police were involved in setting up Azbar's government to influence the election.
They warned beforehand, I don't know by how much. The bomb exploded earlier than announced. Again I don't know by how much and if it could have been a honest mistake (but I suppose that when you warn you also allow for a safety margin) or if if it was deliberate.
Several petrol bombs were thrown at the Syrian embassy in Germany early on Tuesday, but caused minimal damage and no injuries, police and fire officials said. The Molotov cocktails hit an outside wall of the embassy in Berlin's central Tiergarten district and quickly burned out, a fire department spokesman said. Officials investigating the attack said they had no idea of the motive. A statement issued by the Syrian Embassy said four petrol bombs hit the building. "If this was the work of any Syrian groups then these people are documenting that they have not understood the current modernisation and development transformations going on in the entire country," said the embassy.
"C'mon guyz, get with the program! Knock it off with the 'splosives. We're like, modern and all, now. We sent out a memo last Thursday. Cheez louise."
What happens if some 15 year old hacks it? And beats them?
WASHINGTON — The CIA is conducting a war game this week to simulate an unprecedented, Sept. 11-like electronic assault against the United States. The three-day exercise, known as "Silent Horizon," is meant to test the ability of government and industry to respond to escalating Internet disruptions over many months, according to participants. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the CIA asked them not to disclose details of the sensitive exercise taking place in Charlottesville, Va., about two hours southwest of Washington. So why didn't they just shut the fuck up?
The simulated attacks were carried out five years in the future by a fictional new alliance of anti-American organizations that included anti-globalization hackers. The most serious damage was expected to be inflicted in the closing hours of the war game Thursday. Sounds real "spontaneous" to me if they know that...
The national security simulation was significant because its premise — a devastating cyberattack that affects government and parts of the economy on the scale of the 2001 suicide hijackings — contradicts assurances by U.S. counterterrorism experts that such effects from a cyberattack are highly unlikely."You hear less and less about the digital Pearl Harbor," said Dennis McGrath, who has helped run three similar exercises for the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College. "What people call cyberterrorism, it's just not at the top of the list."
The CIA's little-known Information Operations Center, which evaluates threats to U.S. computer systems from foreign governments, criminal organizations and hackers, was running the war game. About 75 people, mostly from the CIA, along with other current and former U.S. officials, gathered in conference rooms and pretended to react to signs of mock computer attacks. Oh,no! It's a mock attack!
The government remains most concerned about terrorists using explosions, radiation and biological threats. FBI Director Robert Mueller warned earlier this year that terrorists increasingly are recruiting computer scientists but said most hackers "do not have the resources or motivation to attack the U.S. critical information infrastructures." How's your computer system coming along by the way, Director? Nevermind, we already know...
The government's most recent intelligence assessment of future threats through the year 2020 said cyberattacks are expected but terrorists "will continue to primarily employ conventional weapons." Authorities have expressed concerns about terrorists combining physical attacks such as bombings with hacker attacks to disrupt rescue efforts, known as hybrid or "swarming" attacks.
"One of the things the intelligence community was accused of was a lack of imagination," said Dorothy Denning of the Naval Postgraduate School, an expert on Internet threats who was invited by the CIA to participate but declined. "You want to think about not just what you think may affect you but about scenarios that might seem unlikely." Sounds like she's real impressed with it.
An earlier cyberterrorism exercise called "Livewire" for the Homeland Security Department and other federal agencies concluded there were serious questions over government's role during a cyberattack depending on who was identified as the culprit — terrorists, a foreign government or bored teenagers. I know who I'm betting on.
It also questioned whether the U.S. government would be able to detect the early stages of such an attack without significant help from private technology companies.
The Story of the Censored 'Truths' General Musharraf's favorite Islamic TV preacher, the junior Minister for Religious Affairs of the Pakistan Government, 'Dr' Aamir Liaquat Hussain of the fake PhD degree fame, has finally shot himself, not in the foot but almost in the head. Any where, if there is one American soldier present, suicide bombing is permissible under Islam" Dr. Aamir was quoted by these sources as having said on record. "There are times when the truth must be told," he added in one remark.
Posted by: john ||
05/25/2005 20:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Any where, if there is one American soldier present, suicide bombing is permissible under Islam
And this guy is still a Pakistan Federal Minister?
Posted by: john ||
05/25/2005 21:07 Comments ||
Top||
#2
And this guy is still a Pakistan Federal Minister?
Well..considering who we have in our own congress...
UNB, DHAKA - Home Ministry yesterday asked elite-force RAB to scale up vigilance in their uniform and plainclothes across the country following reports of a resurgence in criminal and extremist activities. State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar gave the directive at a high-level review meeting at the ministry on crime situation in order to improve further the law-and-order situation. "People love RAB and their aspiration from RAB is more. That's why RAB will have to work more cautiously to meet the people's aspiration," he said during the operational briefing to the Rapid Action Battalion.
"...try to come up with a new story line. The "arms cache at 2am is getting tired."
Briefing strategy to tackle the situation, Babar asked RAB officials to increase vigilance in every ward deploying dedicated teams in the city as well as across the country. As the activities of so-called "Sarbahara Bahini" have reportedly started again, the minister asked anticrime battalion to keep its force alert in preventing them as well as the so-called JMJB from making a comeback.
"Stay alert! Bangladesh needs more lerts!"
A plethora of issues were discussed in the meeting attended by Home Secretary Safar Raj Hossain, Inspector General of Police Abdul Quayum, and DG of RAB and its battalion and company chiefs. In the stocktaking the meeting noted that 91 people were killed in "crossfires" encounter and shooting reviews executive inquiries were held into 60 of the killing cases. "And all the incidents proved justified," said an official who attended the meeting.
Greenlight!
His observations came in the wake of an outcry from the opposition against what they called "extra-judicial killings".
Also known as "crossfires", "encounters" and the ever popular "died in custody from unknown causes".
He also said that Babar asked the authorities to complete executive investigation of the rest of the deaths in "encounter" immediately.
"No problem, we've got the rubber stamp right here."
Discussing an upturn in robberies and murders, Babar ordered the RAB to intensify vigilance by plainclothes personnel with a view to preventing the heists. The minister told the meet that the government wants to make the RAB an elite force armed with all necessary logistics to control law and order. "So work with utmost honesty and sincerity; reward and punishment remain for your jobs."
They've got the punishment part down solid.
Babar asked them to intensify patrol to stop 'silent extortion', highway robberies and snatching so that people can feel secure every time everywhere in the country. RAB officials narrated the outcome of their drive against misuse of drugs and its traders across the country. Appreciating their activities, the minister said huge foreign investment is coming in and so law and order has improved. "Improved law and order situation will have to be continued for the sake of country's interest."
"We love you R-A-B,
Oh yes we do
We love you R-A-B,
And we'll be true
When you're not busting heads, we're blue
Oh, R-A-B, we love you..."
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 13:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The following are excerpts from a news story about Al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on May 24, 2005.
Reporter: Perhaps no man has experienced the paradox of living in the dark while all the world's spotlights are focused on him as much as the mysterious Jordanian, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. This makes him somewhat similar to Osama Bin Laden and the rest of the Al-Qaeda leaders. He differs from them in that he has refrained from sending televised messages, especially in the past two years, in which he his star shone as the most brutal leader of the armed militants fighting the Americans in Iraq. Before that, only few people had heard the name Al-Zarqawi or knew what he looked like. But when he began to be pursued as America's most wanted man in Iraq, this myth gave rise to attempts to describe him as a symbol of the struggle by some, and a horrifying nightmare by others, while questions regarding his personality and goals still arouse much controversy.
Voice of Al-Zarqawi: "With Allah's help, we raid them as they raid us, and attack them as they attack us."
Reporter: Al-Zarqawi, whose real name is Ahmad Fadil Nazzal Al-Khalayla, was born in 1966 in the Jordanian city of Zarqa, to a family from the Bani Hasan tribe. He spent his childhood in a poor and crowded environment, and in his teens, he became what they call a neighborhood bully. He soon turned to religion and began to frequent mosques, where he made friends with members in Islamic groups calling for Jihad. In the late 1980's, Al-Zarqawi joined the so-called "Jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan." There he met a man named Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdissi, and after returning to Jordan, the two formed what came to be known as the "Al-Tawhid" group. Its members were arrested by Jordanian security forces in 1994, and were tried in the State Security court.
Al-Zarqawi's five years in jail shaped his personality more and more. The court later sentenced to death in absentia after convicting him of planning the assassination of the American diplomat Thomas Foley (sic. The diplomat's real name was Laurence Foley) in Amman. His personality led him to Iraq, where he engaged in bloody incursions with both the Americans and the Iraqi security forces. This enabled him to reach an agreement with Osama Bin Laden. The two united, and Bin Laden appointed Al-Zarqawi "Emir" of the so-called "Qaedat Al-Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers (Iraq)."
Sounds like they're warming up the funeral music and laying in a supply of sackcloth and ashes.
This article starring:
ABU MUHAMAD AL MAQDISI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
AHMED FADIL NAZZAL AL KHALAILA
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 12:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Is it time yet for the vulture? Pleeeze say yes...
#6
It is a shame he is dieing slowly this will give him time to appoint the new leadership order. If he had died or even better been captured suddenly thier would have been confusion and maybe even some infighting for the new line up. I really wish we could have captured him I would love to have seen him on Iraqi TV after thier interview admitting to all sorts of crimes. Dammm I wanted to see that.
#8
the Z-man's passing will be good, but the Syrian connection has to be stopped. There is still an organization and a base. We are breaking connections of the organization, but it is not going down. Syria is at least one of the main bases and those bases which perform the planning, the staging and moving of materiel and supplies, and men need a wack or two. Blinding statement of the obvious, but it's fundamental. Not doing so is costing us and the Iraqis good men, women, and children.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/25/2005 21:59 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Hot Pursuit via airdropped clusterbombs, with a more or less deliberate 10 mi Syrian air violation? Sends a message
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/25/2005 22:20 Comments ||
Top||
TEL AVIV - An Israeli human rights group accused the Israeli army on Wednesday of carrying out targeted killings disguised as attempted arrests. A report published by B'Tselem said that of 89 Palestinians killed in 2004 during actions, which Israel described as arrest operations, 43 were not armed, or were armed but did not attempt to use their weapons against the soldiers trying to arrest them.
The report, titled "Take No Prisoners", charges that the alleged lack of a gunbattle in those 43 cases implies a premeditated intention to kill the pursued militants, rather than arrest them. The Israeli army vehemently denied the allegations. A statement admitted the army carried out three targeted killings in the West Bank in the past year, against more than 3,000 arrest operations.
The B'Tselem report details four examples of Palestinians killed during arrest operations. The first two cases describe how two Palestinians, one of them a wanted militant, the other the brother of a wanted militant, were shot dead at their doorsteps even though they were unarmed. The shootings happened after Israeli soldiers surrounded their houses and called on them to open the door.
"Come on out, we just want to talk to you about a cache of hidden arms"
In both cases, B'Tselem's investigation was based on one indirect witness, the first on the account of the victim's mother, the second on that of the militant's wife.
Truely un-biased sources, you might even say they are "Newsweek worthy".
The other two cases describe how Israeli soldiers shot dead wanted Palestinians who had already surrendered, one of them after he was injured.
"Wasn't us, he just got caught in a "crossfire" when a cadre of his friends tried to spring him."
The report quotes one direct and three indirect eyewitness, all of them Palestinian passersby.
Ah, the fabled passersby. Totally reliable, it must be true.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 11:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
An Israeli human rights group accused the Israeli army on Wednesday of carrying out targeted killings disguised as attempted arrests.
How clever of them! Did they patent that business method, or can we use that, too?
Posted by: Mike ||
05/25/2005 12:18 Comments ||
Top||
#2
IDF should have "found" a shutter gun and a handful of bullets for the ploy to work properly...
#3
In a related story, the human rights group said that palestinian mortar barrages on Israeli civilians were simply attempts at peace negotiations, and were misunderstood by the Israelis.
#4
On their web page on this report they have testimony of 7 people. All are, in some way, family members or friends or associates. They don't have any testimony from IDF eyewitnesses.
#6
I'd be more sympathetic to this line of argument if Israel's lack of a death penalty and proclivity for releasing "militants" in ill-favored prisoner exchanges didn't mean that any asshole captured in the normal fashion will be strutting the streets of Ramallah again as soon as Hezbollah finds the time to kidnap another businessman, or even just find an Israeli corpse to steal.
Give 'em back the death penalty and stop trading terrorists for hostages, Ari. Be amazed as the number of live captures suddenly skyrockets.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/25/2005 13:09 Comments ||
Top||
#7
live captures serve little purpose - these mooks are hard-core indoctrinated thugs. Better to take no chances
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/25/2005 13:41 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Is today "human rights day" or something? If the guys making the "arrests" even think the the suspect might be armed and the suspect doesn't do as he is told, if they get shot it's on them. These guys want to go home too. No mysterious scheme involved. These "human rights" folks need to get a life.
#9
Wonder if this "human rights" group considers your finger on a cell phone a "weapon." Or finger on a detonator of the explosives wrapped around your chest, and not just guns? I could easily see how the IDF would shoot anyone with those 2 situations. Heck, look at our local future Darwin Award nominees who get caught in a police chase and pull a TOY gun out at the cops, and poof, they're gone and the families are left screaming at the cops. Think of that mentality in Paleo-land and you get the picture of why IDF does what it does.
Posted by: BA ||
05/25/2005 14:11 Comments ||
Top||
#10
This post by Melanie Phillips shows the attempts that Israelis go to assassinating their targets:
href='http:// www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/001223.html'>An average day in Jerusalem
After Hassan was out of immediate danger, some colleagues used to ask me why we couldn't transfer him back to a Palestinian Authority hospital for further care. The truth is that I really felt that the procedures he had undergone had been so complex and his course so stormy that he would be better served remaining under the care of the team that operated on him during his admission, so he stayed.
'Hassan still comes for review at my clinic and is doing very well. The Israeli secret service now feels that he poses a minimal risk to Israeli civilians and as such have dropped the charges against him.
'Were we right to put so much effort and resource into one life when that person had murdered so many of our civilians? Would the Palestinians or even the Arab world do the same for a wounded Israeli? Our experience with shootings, kidnappings and lynchings suggests otherwise. Would other nations, if placed today in a similar state of war, afford such care to their enemies? Let s hope they never have to find out. As far as we are concerned, medicine is about the people who need to be treated regardless of race or religion. As doctors, we must just get on with the job in hand and leave justice to the judges'.
'Avraham Rivkind, Professor of Trauma Surgery, Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem. Israel
Dan Ellis
Specialist Registrar in Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care, London'
#12
Good read, Cynic. That post sums up what separates us and the savages.
Posted by: BA ||
05/25/2005 14:34 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Muhammadanism has a long history of assassination. Muhammad himself had three critics assassinated. The famous assassin cult of Islam dispatched killers from their redoubts in the Persian and Syrian mountains.
The Jews of Israel had to become a bit like their enemy in order to defeat him. If these are actually assassinations I can live with that, easily.
#7
I think its all crap, because they want to decalre him dead, thereby dooping the stupid Americans. If he was seriously hurt, then we would be able to deduce where it was that he got tagged. Until the Pentagon says, well he coul dhave been whacked during this or that fight, then maybe I will give it credence.
I mean this guy was not hurt jumpin a convoy or something, he does not seem to be the type to risk himself like that. So that implies he was hit by an Iraqi or maybe an American sniper.
But then why not anything from the Pentagon that says well there was a scrap over here the other day....
#8
If true, a simple reminder of the reward on TV and Radio should improve things....
Do you want to live like a member of the House of Saud? Just turn in this piece of scum to the US and you can! Why wait for 77 virgins? You will be able to afford them NOW!
#9
IMO, now is the time to lower the reward for Zarqawi
Given Arab psychology, this would be a big propaganda blow to the terrorist side and might even get a crucial piece of info from someone trying to get in before the price went down again.
#11
Speculation is no substitute for the truth... since there are few truths from these liars, the truth is more like his boy servant stabbing him in the chest during a heated and nefarious moment. Truth is always stranger than fiction.
#12
But speculation is sooo much fun! Here is mine: Z-Man is wounded, painfully we hope, and he has split for a neighoring country, namely Syria.
Why Syria? Z needed to flee the encroaching forces that are pushing towards Syria and rolling up his followers like a carpet. The Syrians just recently stopped 'cooperation' with the Americans after beating a surprisingly hasty retreat out of Lebanon. Harboring Z, a rather insane act, fits in with Baby Assad's desire to scheme with the Big Dogs and his tendency to do it ineptly.
#15
Ah yes, physically he'll be saved by prayer no doubt (not modern medicine developed by western cutlure) but mentally there is nothing short of a .50 cal slug in the brainstem that will cure him.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/25/2005 12:14 Comments ||
Top||
#17
Abu Musb al-Zarqawi
June 1: $25,000,000.00
June 8: $20,000,000.00
June 15: $15,000,000.00
Posted by: Syms--Where an educated consumer is our best customer ||
05/25/2005 12:15 Comments ||
Top||
#18
I think this whole story is made up to give him an excuse to flee Iraq and desert his men.
Posted by: Peter ||
05/25/2005 12:24 Comments ||
Top||
#19
But then why not anything from the Pentagon that says well there was a scrap over here the other day....
Seems to me that there was such an announcement, but it was a week or so ago. It was after Al-Libi (what was that guy's name?) was caught. Or was he whacked? Seems to me that it was announced that several of Z's "top aides" were captured, but I don't remember enough of the details to google it up.
Peter and Shipman have got it right. Z-Man has left the building using injury as the excuse. To which country I don't know. I'll speculate and say Syria.
Plainslow is on to something when he/she suggests that when Z-man finally rears his ugly (and healthy) head it'll spun by Al-Jizz "due to the graces of all the prayers to Allah". That would make for good PR for the uneducated masses in the ME.
Hope I'm wrong. That is, I hope the sob is dying a slow and painful death.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
05/25/2005 16:51 Comments ||
Top||
#24
I presume Z man has been in and out of Iraq fairly regularly over the last 2 years - I dont think that would account for all the fuss.
I rather suspect either A. This is total disinfo, to throw us off track, unrelated to any real world events.
or B. Hes dead already. This is cover while the new leader gets established.
#25
Seems to me that it was announced that several of Z's "top aides" were captured, but I don't remember enough of the details to google it up.
Just saw on NBC, they said Zarqawi was (or may have been) wounded during "Operation Matador", on the 14th or so. Here's CNN's report on the operation, on that date.
Supporters of the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, filled Islamist bulletin boards on the Internet with prayers for his recovery on Wednesday after his group said he had been wounded. A statement posted on Tuesday on sites used by insurgents called on Muslims to "pray for the healing of our Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from an injury he suffered in the path of God".
Signed in the name of the Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq, its authenticity could not be verified. But get-well messages flowed in from dozens of concerned supporters. Within hours one posting had launched a "million prayers of recovery campaign", quickly garnering over 70 responses. "Do not be sparing in your prayers for a speedy recovery for the Sheikh and may God return him to the fray in safety," the poster said, signing off with a graphic that featured Zarqawi's face, a bloodied knife and the words "behead".
"O God, take away the pain of Abu Musab, and heal him, since their is no healing or medicine other than from You," wrote a group calling itself the Global Islamic Media Front.
"Take the health and well-being of the kings and tyrants and bestow it upon your servant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," another user said in prayer.
One user sought to reassure readers that "mujahideen in Iraq" revealed to him that Zarqawi had escaped to a neighbouring country with a lung wound and breathing difficulties.
Some said the posting about Zarqawi's injury was a lie. "This news is empty of truth and aims to unsettle us. We should check before spreading this kind of thing," one supporter said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2005 09:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Anyone got any links to these sites? I'd like to post a "Get Dead" message.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/25/2005 9:47 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Oh, Sheikhy! May Allah take care of that purty mouth! I miss it so!
#9
Sheik your booty Zarqawi! The world sits on pins & needles while holding its breath till it turns purple in the face in expectation of a hopefully long drawn out and agonizingly painful infectious lethal death that lasts many moons for you to stare at each painful night through blurry salty blood filled teary eyes and parched flaky swollen lips that never feel moist again, and your soft distended feminine gut gurgles with the rotting tissues expanding and shifting from one organ to the next and causing painful pressures and excreting viscous hot infected fluids from one end of your body and out the mouth piece you find so convienent to sit upon while dining with other evil doers and blasphemous people hiding behind the Quran to commit your deeds of the Blood Cult. Zarqawi... I would not permit you to even remove dog poop from my yard... that honor is even too high for the bearded she-male Osama. Zaraqawi... an oinker from being spawned on a pig farm to that of an attention getter for the swine robbing the future of the good people who are true Muslims in the land of two rivers (there is a third somewhere). Zaraqawi... when this is all over... you will be forgotten and reduced to a name mentioned in some research paper. Pigs of a similar cloven hoof pack the poop puddles together, your pig pals will certainly discover that death is certain for everyone. Too bad they could not use their energy to create and improve rather than destroy and rot the live of people. The highest forms produced from God rot what God has wrought... shame on you and your pig friends.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (UPI) -- A militant Islamic Web site reported Wednesday Iraq al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was evacuated from Iraq after being injured. Zarqawi`s group, al-Qaida Organization in Mesopotamia, said in a statement carried on the site Zarqawi was moved secretly to a neighboring country with the help of doctors from the Arab Peninsula and the Sudan.
"Arab Peninsula", I'm guessing that would be Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UEA and maybe Jordan. Plus, there's nothing like Sudanese medical care to bring a smile to my face.
The group did not identify the country to which Zarqawi was evacuated but said he is in a stable condition after a bullet pierced the right side of his chest causing breathing problems.
Sucking Chest Wound, one of the all time favorites.
Next to the fabled sucking head wound, of course...
The group said in a message on the Web site Tuesday Zarqawi had been wounded. It asked for "prayers for our leader," and expressed pride at what they described as his heroic wounds. It did not say how or when the Jordanian-born Zarqawi was hurt.
Additional: An Islamic website statement claimed today that Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaida in Iraq chief, has fled to an unidentified "neighbouring country" with two Arab doctors treating him for gunshot wounds to his lung. Same source, more details.
There was no way to verify the authenticity of the claim. The site used to carry al Qaida postings, but has fallen out of use recently. Soon, the posting appeared on another militant site, where it quickly came under attack from other posters as untrue and unauthorised by al Qaida. The statement from somebody identified only as al-Khalidi the same name as a regular poster for the site in the past said the information was based on accounts of "brothers close to the holy warriors in Iraq and who are in contact with them." He did not elaborate.
Mideast security officials told The Associated Press in the Jordanian capital Amman they could not verify the authenticity of the posting or veracity of its contents. On Tuesday, a web statement in the name of al-Zarqawi's group, al Qaida in Iraq, said the terrorist mastermind has been wounded. But US officials cautioned they did not know if the posting was authentic, and privately said the information also may have been designed to purposefully mislead. Today's statement said al-Zarqawi "was secretly smuggled to a neighbouring country a few days ago in a complicated and organised operation." It did not identify the country.
For which said un-named country thanks them.
It said al-Zarqawi was in "stable condition now" after he incurred a "bullet wound which penetrated his right lung."
Meanwhile it has been reported today that Iraqi security forces have killed a senior al-Zarqawi aide in northern Iraq, the government said. Sabhan Ahmad Ramadan was killed as he was manning a checkpoint in the northern province of Nineveh, a government announcement said. It added that Ramadan, also known as Agha Abu Saad, was a leading aide to Abu Talha the head of operations in Mosul for al-Zarqawi and his al Qaida in Iraq terror group. No further details on the man or how he was killed were provided.
MORE: One of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's lieutenants has claimed the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq was shot "between the shoulder and chest" in fighting over the weekend west of Ramadi.
Sounds like it clipped the top of the lung
The claim from Abu Karar, who was identified as a lieutenant for Zarqawi in Ramadi, came after a leader of his organisation, Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi, posted notification of the terrorist's alleged injury on a website. The web posting could not be independently confirmed. However, following the web announcement, several members of Zarqawi's group, including Karar, said they had heard he had been shot. Karar said the al-Qaeda group had been caught in an ambush by Iraqi forces and US marines. A top Zarqawi aide and several Arab fighters had also been killed, he said. Karar said Zarqawi was in a stable condition and in a safe place being treated by doctors.
Of course, they could be saying he's out of the country to try to throw off pursuit.
Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Boylan, spokesman for the US military in Baghdad, said of the website announcement of Zarqawi's wounding, "We don't know whether it's fact or fiction. He continues to be our number one target."
The Army Of Steve has spoken!
Samarrae, the security adviser to the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, also played down the report. He told Al-Jazeera television: "Three days ago, one of the most important aides to Zarqawi was arrested and maybe he gave important information about Zarqawi and his whereabouts." He added: "In all cases, there are many probabilities. Maybe he is not wounded and he posted this statement on the internet to say he is wounded and then post another statement to say that he is treated and fine and he is like superman."
This article starring:
ABU KARAR
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU MAISARAH AL IRAQI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
ABU TALHA
al-Qaeda in Iraq
AGHA ABU SAAD
al-Qaeda in Iraq
SABHAN AHMED RAMADAN
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 09:23 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
You may recall the Saudi suicide bomber in the mess tent in Mosul was an al-Ghamdi who was studying medicine in Sudan while his Pop was Binny's "ambassador" there...
#7
Too true, gromky. Give me an M-14. I use an AR-15 for coyotes and groundhogs.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/25/2005 12:08 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I use an AR-15 for coyotes and groundhogs.
Well, he does fit in the varmint catagory. I'd like a shot at him with my 250-3000 Savage with the 86 grain softpoint. Woodchucks look like they'd swallowed a handgrenade after that baby hits them.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 12:17 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Find out where he is and flatten the hospital, maybe the town. Send a message to these people and their supporters. Sure, there'll be much seething, but when isn't there?
#10
The group did not identify the country to which Zarqawi was evacuated but said he is in a stable condition...
Oh, please, please, please, let that be the same "stable condition" Arafat lingered in for a month. You know, "stable" as in "well, he can't get any worse".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/25/2005 13:57 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Abu,
Don't let the doctors use those Western anti-biotics on you. They'll make you sterile. Just like the polio vaccine.
An Egyptian militant living in London said he believes a statement purportedly from al-Qaeda saying that Iraq's top terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was injured is credible, according to reports on Wednesday in two London-based Pan-Arab dailies. Hani Sebai, director of the Maqreze Islamic Centre in London, told al-Hayat newspaper that he believed the statement posted Tuesday on a website sympathetic to al-Qaeda to be "true and it resembles an obituary". He added that it could mean that "Zarqawi was martyred or is in the throes of death." Sebai made similar remarks to Asharq al-Awsat, which also reported that Islamist websites are busy with people posting messages wishing the Jordanian who leads al-Qaeda operations in Iraq a swift recovery.
This article starring:
HANI SEBAI
Maqreze Islamic Centre in London
Maqreze Islamic Centre in London
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2005 09:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The graphics on this site are so funny! Just the graphics alone are worth coming to rantburg for a big hearty laugh.
I love the accordian lady warm up act. But she must be getting tired. Fat lady's gonna shatter glass on this one.
#2
Let the speculation games begin. Old photographs and scratchy audio tapes periodically issued, etc etc. The Z man is supposed to be over in the US attacking us. Too much on his plate. If they find him dead or alive, he needs the lampost treatment. No cozy jail cell, no fresh undies, no autobiography.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/25/2005 10:24 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Dat-ta accordion lady issa hot!
Posted by: Lawrence Welk ||
05/25/2005 10:33 Comments ||
Top||
Iraqi and US troops have arrested two top aides of Al-Qaeda's Iraq frontman, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and are hot on the heels of militants loyal to him in north-western Iraq, commanders said today, a day after the country's most wanted man was reported wounded. Described as "one of the most wanted people" in northern Iraq, Mullah Kamel al-Assawadi was detained after he tried to bribe his way past an Iraqi checkpoint, the US military said. One of Zarqawi's regional secretaries was also detained in the restive provincial capital of Baquba, north of Baghdad, a statement said. "Assawadi was questioned by an Iraqi soldier at a checkpoint close to Balad," an insurgent stronghold near Baquba, the military said without giving a date for his arrest.
Described as one of Zarqawi's top lieutenants, Assawadi had on him various identity papers as well as dollars with which he tried to buy the soldier's silence. "He tried to hide his identity but several detainees recognised him and he is currently held at a multi-national forces detention centre where he is being questioned," the statement added. Assawadi allegedly financed and provided military training to an insurgent cell and helped prepare car bombs. "He was linked to numerous Wahhabis (Saudi-inspired Sunni militants) operating north of Baghdad," said the statement, adding that Assawadi was based in the Sunni insurgent bastion of Samarra, a city north of Baghdad which was retaken from rebels in a massive US-backed assault last autumn.
The Iraqi Defence Ministry meanwhile announced that the Army and allied forces had "arrested Zarqawi's secretary for Diyala province, Agha Omar, on Tuesday in Baquba," without providing further details.
Additional: Officials say Iraqi forces made the arrest of al-Aswadi as he tried to bribe his way through a checkpoint in the town of Balad. His vehicle was found to contain a global positioning system, multiple identification papers, a scope used to launch mortars, and U.S. currency.
Let's hope he didn't clear the GPS memory, any waypoints he plotted could be interesting.
This article starring:
AGHA OMAR
al-Qaeda in Iraq
MULLAH KAMEL AL ASAWADI
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2005 09:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Excellent. Take the money and give it to the soldier as a reward for not taking a bribe.
Other prisoners recognized him...isn't that the legend of how Santa Anna was picked out of the crowd after the Battle of San Jacinto?
#3
been lots going on lately. Almost like the wrap up of a big sting. I bet the car bombing will drop dramatically in Iraq. Poor news media, what will they cover?
#4
The car bombings are a desperate effort to throw Iraq into chaos and destroy or discredit the new govt. I am sure that the terrorists are using up resources and resorting to second and lower strings. The Syrian connection needs to be cut off now. They need some kind of clando wack that will send a message home.
The one question I have is about the Saudi border. Is it sealed off? Are the Saudi fodder staging at Syria? And how much is coming through Iran now?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/25/2005 10:33 Comments ||
Top||
#5
gromky. I agree, except double it. Than make sure evey Iraq soldier and policeman know.
#6
At some level, actions against the insurgents, deaths and captures of insurgents, etc, are only inputs. The real outputs, are reduced attacks on Americans, reduced attacks on Iraqis, and successful reconstruction of Iraq (including electricity, oil, etc)
Nonetheless, given the long term nature of this conflict, and its complexity, I think it is justified to look at the "inputs" and count them on the positive side, even in times (like the last month) when the output side has looked poor.
It should be noted, again, that the 2 months after the election represented a dramatic drop in insurgent attacks, after several months of very high attacks. Its not clear if the recent surge means those two months were a fluke, or if the recent surge is a fluke, or somewhere in between. Given that uncertainty, there is all the more justification for looking at inputs.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/25/2005 11:58 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Give the guard $500,000 out of Z mans $25 million, reset his at $24.5 million IF he can be brought in alive in the next 3 weeks, and say Z mans will be dropping then as we will pay less for "expired" meat.
Force Z man to prove he is alive instead of scratching our butts wondering if he is dead.
Same goes for Obama...er, I mean Osama.
May 25, 2005; While thousands of Iraqi police and troops round up hundreds of terrorist suspects in Baghdad, American troops have begun another sweep west of Baghdad, where al Qaeda has established bases since they were driven out of Fallujah late last year. Moreover, rumors that al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi had been wounded in action about a month ago, were given some confirmation when a pro-al Qaeda web site stated that al Zarqawi had been wounded and should be prayed for. If this is true, then the web site announcement appears to be an attempt to prepare al Qaeda supporters for al Zarqawi's death (which may have already taken place.)
Kind of like when a Soviet leader was reported to have come down with a cold, you knew they were getting the coffin ready
Because al Qaeda has invested so much in building up al Zarqawi's image and stature, his demise would be a major blow to the terrorist cause. Just admitting, on a known al Qaeda web site, that al Zarqawi was wounded, is bad PR. Al Qaeda lives and dies by its public image. In the last few months, that image has been taking a major beating throughout the Arab world.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 08:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Oooh, I've never thought about that angle! Thanks for the analogy, Steve! Now I'm really starting to hope -- don't fail me now!
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
05/25/2005 10:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
When I heard about it on NPR driving in to work this morning, I about drove off the road when they said that the source was saying that al Zarqawi was selecting a successor for the eventualities if he didn't make it. That's about as transparent a move to legitimize a new pretender to the throne in the wake of an unexpected royal death as I can imagine.
Zark's a doornail. Put some champagne on ice for the inevitable announcement.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/25/2005 10:53 Comments ||
Top||
Hundreds of US soldiers have swept through the western Iraqi town of Haditha, searching homes and seizing suspected insurgents. "About 15 [troops] came to my house and searched everything, looking for arms and asking if I knew any insurgents," an academic, Maher Dali, told Reuters. At least two people are reported to have been killed in fierce gun battles. The area, 200km (125 miles) north-west of Baghdad, has been the scene of frequent attacks on US-led troops. An Associated Press report says helicopters dropped US marines near palm groves to block off one side of the town, while other troops established checkpoints and moved into the centre of the city on foot and in armoured vehicles. "Right now there's a larger threat than should be in Haditha and we're here to tell them that they're not welcome," battalion commander Lt Col Lionel Urquhart told the news agency. Residents quoted by Reuters said the town was completely occupied and most people were too frightened to leave their homes. One resident was witnessed being arrested by US marines for having too much ammunition for a licensed weapon.
"Sorry sir, but you'll have to come with us. We think 100,000 rounds is a bit much for personal use, even if you do have a wedding planned."
The man was blindfolded and had a code number written on his forehead, as his mother and sisters pleaded with the troops and their Iraqi translator to release him.
"He's a good boy, he was just getting ready for elk season."
It is the second major offensive in the western Anbar province to tackle the insurgency, which has claimed more than 600 lives since the new Iraqi government was formed nearly a month ago. Operation Matador used similar numbers of troops earlier in May to attack suspected insurgents in towns close to the Syrian border.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/25/2005 08:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"About 15 [troops] came to my house and searched everything, looking for arms and asking if I knew any insurgents," an academic, Maher Dali, told Reuters
Academic, like in madrassah? Maybe Rooters should put scare quotes around "academic" like they do for "terrorists" insurgents.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/25/2005 9:03 Comments ||
Top||
#2
For reference purposes, this is Operation NEW MARKET.
#3
N.B.: If this is a second or third Division-sized exercise, then their status is boosted to a Corps exercise. The successful creation of an Iraqi "I Corps" would be a major milestone to Iraqi military self-sufficiency.
#4
Steve: "Sorry sir, but you'll have to come with us. We think 100,000 rounds is a bit much for personal use, even if you do have a wedding planned."
"Unless you work for the Iraqi government, of course. In that case, 100,000 rounds is kinda low. We'll have to dock your pay to augment your mini-arsenal to the required 200,000 rounds".
#7
...arrested by US marines for having too much ammunition for a licensed weapon.
What is this, Frisco? I thought laws like that were restricted to idiotarian enclaves over here. Do we have liberal Democrats running the cities over there?
#16
20 or 30 rounds isn't enough. Couple hundred ought to be OK. AKs over there are about as common as 22s over here and 1000 rounds is a common quanity. I am thinking this guy had a full tin of 7.62X39 or something.
#19
The man was blindfolded and had a code number written on his forehead
Thats not a "code" you idiot, thats the Victoria's Secret catalog number for the panties he will be wearing tonight...
He should be tankful he's not getting those droopy u-trou seen in the Saddam fashion spread.
Interpol has stepped up its hunt for mysterious underworld don Dawood Ibrahim after confirmed reports of his changed identity and his increased activities in Delhi, Nepal, Burma and Bangladesh. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Interpol have stepped up their joint investigation especially after Dawood's henchman Kamal Kishore Chaddha was arrested in Delhi and later he jumped the bail. The police have no concrete information about his whereabouts. This Dawood's associate was entrusted with the task to spread fake Indian currency in India. He was arrested on February 28, 2005 with Rs 200,000 of fake notes from his Defense Colony residence in the Capital where he had been living for three years. Due to the negligence on the part of the Delhi police, Chaddha was not booked with substantial evidences and consequently he was granted bail. But soon afterwards he absconded. Delhi police and the Intelligence Bureau are still groping in the dark.
The Indian security agencies have also received information about the meeting of the top Dawood aides at a hotel in Kathmandu allegedly belonging to an anti-India businessman. This anti-India businessman is known for his closeness with many Pakistan diplomats. According to reports Ejaz Lakdawala, Tariq Ali, Kausar Hussain Siddiqui, etc attended the meeting in the first week of May. In this meeting, Ejaz Lakdawala is believed to have taken over the responsibilities of the stakes of Dawood in Kathmandu. Tariq Ali is a son-in-law of a pro-Monarchy former Prime Minister of Nepal, whereas Kausar Hussain Siddiqui is the convener of the D-Company funded militant organization of Bangladesh, Shahadat-e-Al-Hakim. It is believed that Tariq Ali organizes all anti-India demonstrations and agitations in Nepal, especially after the stiff Indian stand in the wake of ousting of the Deuba government.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/25/2005 05:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
In what American military officials said was the largest Iraqi-led operation to date and evidence that the country's fledgling army was up and running, hundreds of Iraqi soldiers fanned out Sunday and Monday in a dangerous western suburb here, arresting 437 people they accuse of having ties to the insurgency. The officials said Tuesday that more than 2,000 Iraqi soldiers and special police commandos carried out the operation, which was aimed at rooting out insurgents and closing down car bomb assembly lines in Abu Ghraib, which is predominantly Sunni Arab and has been a hotbed of insurgent activity for months.
The raids were the latest in an attempt by Iraq's new government to try to strike back at the insurgency that has killed more than 500 people since the government was formed several weeks ago. But recent large-scale raids, particularly by Shiite and Kurdish security forces, have raised fears in Sunni areas that nets are being cast too widely, catching many innocent Iraqis along with those who have ties to insurgents. Americans have planned and fought virtually all major military offensives in Iraq in the past two years, including in Falluja, west of Baghdad, and more recently in the desert near the border with Syria, with Iraqi forces arriving later to help keep security in the cities.
But American commanders have been training Iraqi troops to take control eventually, and the raids, which have also been conducted in other cities, move the country closer to that goal, American military officials said. The number of trained and equipped Iraqi troops has also risen, to 165,219, about double the number last September. "Ultimately, countries need to defend themselves," said Col. Mark A. Milley, commander of the Second Brigade of the Army's 10th Mountain Division, which worked with the Iraqis in the Abu Ghraib raids. "Winning this thing depends on the performance of Iraq's security forces."
On Tuesday, soldiers from the Muthanna Brigade, made up almost exclusively of Kurds and Shiites, walked a victory lap on a wide trash-strewn dirt road in Abu Ghraib lined with car repair shops and the occasional furniture store. Just days before, police officers and soldiers in the area were fired on almost without a break, soldiers said, but on Tuesday, it was safe enough for a walk. "It was a terrible area," said Staff Col. Saman Talabani, the deputy commander of the brigade. "Now people are telling me, 'It's the first day I can eat breakfast very easily.' "
The raids were conducted almost exclusively by Iraqis, but with the support of 1,500 American soldiers. The Americans helped to cordon off areas, while Iraqis entered in small pickup trucks with gunners in the rear and began entering houses and buildings. The Iraqi soldiers arrested people suspected of having ties to the insurgency. There was rare resistance, soldiers said, with a few firefights each day. "They were chickens," Colonel Talabani said.
At the urging of an American military adviser, the brigade commander, Brig. Gen. Aziz Swady, a Shiite from Samawa, gave a few details about how the Iraqis gathered the intelligence to find their targets, saying much of it had come from local residents. Some residents ventured out of their homes on Tuesday, offering Pepsis and cups of water to the soldiers. "Iraqi people want to help now," General Aziz said in a breezy office at an old helicopter base for the Republican Guard of Saddam Hussein that will serve as the brigade's permanent base. "We have many friends in the area."
Colonel Talabani acknowledged that some of those swept up in the raids were probably not guilty of anything, and said that those people would be released as the group was interrogated. The detainees will then be transferred to the custody of the Interior Ministry. One local resident, a 19-year-old vegetable seller who gave his name only as Ali, told Colonel Talabani that his friend had been arrested and had no ties to the insurgency.
Even so, the raids seemed to have had an effect, at least in the area the soldiers patrolled Tuesday. Last week, Colonel Milley said, soldiers in that area encountered enemy fire or bombs 10 to 15 times a day. Since the raids began, he said, the daily number dropped to two to four. Islamists said in an Internet posting on Tuesday night that insurgent networks had not been affected by the raids. But Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the group linked to the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said the soldiers looked only for Sunni Arabs in their raids and ignored Shiites, according to a Web site that tracks such messages.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/25/2005 00:19 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"They were chickens," Colonel Talabani said.
Heh. He's getting the hang of it. Mebbe we should lend them some of those audio tapes that proved so effective in Fallujah in enraging the dipshits into attacking. I recall the laugh track got a good response. Lend 'em a PsyOps Hummer.
#2
This is great, if the Iraqi commanders aren't inflating the reports. Remember that as far as Iraqi public relations go, their role model is Baghdad Bob.
The way to really make the American people understand is to get an imbedded reporter in with the Iraqi troops. It will have to be several reporters, representing the whole spectrum of the MSM. Traitors, Surrender Monkeys, Latent Communists, the Howard Dean guys, moderate Democrats, and Fox News.
#4
I don't think it likely that the Iraqis are inflating. Not with the American advisors standing beside them as they speak. We'll see what they say when they do such things independently -- that's when we'll know how much the Iraqi military culture has really changed.
#5
Traitors, Surrender Monkeys, Latent Communists, the Howard Dean guys, moderate Democrats, and Fox News.
ROTFL -- that really summarizes things pretty well, I believe.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/25/2005 8:25 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I for one am getting annoyed worried by this numbers game thats been gone on recently. I don't know if it is being volunteered or if the press (both Arab and Anglo) are pushing this with their questions. But once you go quanitative vs. qualitative you put yourself in the Westmoreland Syndrome of winning with the high total but losing the effectiveness of the operational objectives.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/25/2005 9:10 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I'd agree with you Jack. But unfortunately, the MSM has been harping about lack of Iraqi support and lack of seeming progress when the military didn't play the game. They gotta give 'em something to report since the MSM doesn't report on the schools/hospitals/health care/saftey improvements. I think they are being careful, but it can be a slippery slope.
#8
my impression is theyre honest about how many people theyre arresting, but not everyone theyre arresting is an insurgent. I saw a quote from Knight Rider, which had someone in the neighborhood, who reported a local saying they were just going around arresting anybody. Discounting that as an exaggeration, its likely that they arrested anyone they had any reason to suspect, leaving the sorting out to be done later. In which case I suspect less than half of the 437 are actually folks who are gonna be held, rather than tossed back.
#9
still, the above should be seen in context. This seems to be the first time the Iraqi forces are doing something like this on this scale, and with cooperation of both the Iraqi army and police (not necessarily simple). Even if they are having problems, that can be chalked up to learning.
Afghan troops have captured 13 suspected Taliban insurgents, including a key militant commander, in a raid in the Zabul province, said Defence Ministry spokesman, General Mohammad Zahir Azimi on Tuesday. Azimi said that troops had captured the fighters, including a man identified as Mullah Abdul Bary, on Monday and handed them to the United States-led coalition forces. The arrests were made during raids in Deh Rawood and neighbouring Uruzgan's Charchino district. The spokesman said the raids were part of the US-Afghan Nam Dong II operation, launched last week against Taliban hideouts in south-central Afghanistan. As part of the same operation, two insurgents were killed in Deh Chopan after they attacked US troops patrolling the area, he said.
This article starring:
MULLAH ABDUL BARY
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nam Dong II looks a lot like Nam Dong Il. I wondered why they were using a Korean operation name.
Four Al Qaeda suspects were arrested in Charsadda district early on Monday morning. Local residents and the district government helped point out the suspects to security forces, a security official and local nazim said on Tuesday. "Residents complained to me about the presence of suspected foreigners and we brought the issue to the notice of authorities concerned," Dosehra Union Council Nazim Nasrullah Khattak told Daily Times.
Security forces arrested four foreigners who looked like Afghans and three women during the raid at 3:00am on Monday, he said, adding, "The local police was not involved in the operation. The army did it." The security official said four 'Egyptians' were arrested, but did not confirm the arrest of the three women. "Their names have not been ascertained yet, as the suspects are not talking," he added. Nasrullah said the foreigners had been staying in the area for the past two to three months. "I visited them several times to know who they were, but nobody came out to talk to me," he said. "They could not speak Pashto, but could speak broken Persian," the nazim said. "During the census of Afghan refugees, we visited the house, but they did not register themselves. One of the occupants identified himself as Abdullah Gul and said they were from Afghanistan," he added. This was the second such raid in Charsadda district in a week. In an earlier raid a Briton was arrested in similar fashion in the Shabqadar area.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Local residents and the district government helped point out the suspects to security forces
#2
The Master of Pretentious Arrogance would drop a load here.
How about that they're just sick and tired of being in the line of fire and fed up with the foreigners coming to their neck of the woods to do their asshattery? I know that's pretty complex, but... I'm thinking this, as with some others that have been decorated with turds, has zip to do with being moderate muzzies or members of the Afghan Rotary Club and everything to do with protecting your family / self from harm - a religion-free reasoning process / survival instinct. I know that's a stretch for the Master, but perhaps he'll climb down off his fucking mountain (of turds) and rejoin the normal people down here on not-full-of-themselves terra firma. One can hope the current mental malady isn't permanent.
Hundreds of armed police and soldiers surrounded a Sudanese refugee camp south of Khartoum yesterday, where at least 17 police and residents died in clashes last week. The armed forces sealed off the area, about 30 km south of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, said a spokesman for the people of Soba Aradi. "They have cordoned off all areas and have taken tough measures to stop people leaving," said spokesman Mohamed Ahmed Abdel Gader Arbab, a lawyer. Clashes erupted last week when Sudanese police tried to relocate refugees mainly from southern Sudan away from the camp. Officials said most of the victims died as crowds massed around the police station and burned it down. Khartoum Governor Abdul Haleem Mutafi said police were looking for a list of people they suspected of stealing weapons and other "criminal activity".
"This is nothing to do with the transfer of people. This is related to the security in the area. There are so many criminals in Soba Aradi," he said. This correspondent saw at least 20 police vehicles and six lorries full of soldiers in an area outside the camp. The police were heavily armed, with machine guns mounted on many of the vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The huge haul of sophisticated arms and ammunition worth 10 million rupees from a container at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in New Bombay, last Saturday by Bombay police and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), has led to the US taking a serious view of the situation and also a possible joining of forces by deploying security officials at the port.
The US is wary of the modus operandi of the shipment of arms, suspected for use in terror activities, and will now deploy its security official at this largest port of India. They also want the port to join the list of 30 other worldwide ports covered under the Container Security Initiative (CSI). A top police official said that the Jawaharlal Nehru port ranks among one of the top ten ports from were maximum containers are shipped to the United States. Among the other ports that the US government has put under the CSI plan are Hong Kong, Busan (South Korea), Singapore and even Shanghai in China while Middle East and Asian ports like Dubai, Shenzhen and Colombo are likely to come under the CSI ambit. The CSI program was launched by the Bush administration after 9/11 and is a counter-terrorism measure adopted by the US government throughout the world.
Confirming the deployment of the US security personnel at the JNPT, R. Buddhiraja, chairman of the JNPT, said that he did not know how many US security personnel are to be deployed at the port. Buddhiraja added the JNPT had already installed scanners and other equipment to examine cargo that is exported to the United States. Presently Indians execute this job but in future this job will be handled by uniformed US personnel from the customs and other security agencies, which will check all the containers for US and will plan overall security. The deployment of the US security personnel, Buddhiraja said, would result in rapid cargo clearances, as the procedures would be in line with US government requirements. Meanwhile Indian intelligence agencies and customs authorities have strongly objected to permission being granted to US Customs and Border Patrol personnel being posted at Indian port.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/25/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Suspected leftist guerrillas carrying assault rifles swept into a southern Colombia town Tuesday and attacked government offices, killing six town councilors and five others, authorities said. The guerrillas, believed to be members of the 
El Salvador and Nicaragua said Tuesday they were on the alert for two al-Qaida terror suspects, but U.S. and Interpol officials downplayed the reports. Officials in El Salvador and Nicaragua said they were on the lookout for a Yemeni man known only as 
ALICANTE — An aeronautical engineer has been arrested for allegedly designing missiles for the Palestinian terrorist organisations Hamas and Islamic Jihad. 
A car bomb has exploded in Madrid after a warning was given to a newspaper in the name of the Eta Basque militants. Three people are reported to have been injured in the blast in the north of the Spanish capital at 0730 GMT. Police had been able to clear most of the area after the Basque Gara paper - often contacted before such attacks - passed on the warning it had received. The Spanish parliament recently backed a plan to allow peace talks with Eta if the group lays down its arms. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero condemned the attack during a speech in the Senate shortly after the blast, reiterating the government's goal to combat and end terrorism.
Several petrol bombs were thrown at the Syrian embassy in Germany early on Tuesday, but caused minimal damage and no injuries, police and fire officials said. The Molotov cocktails hit an outside wall of the embassy in Berlin's central Tiergarten district and quickly burned out, a fire department spokesman said. Officials investigating the attack said they had no idea of the motive. A statement issued by the Syrian Embassy said four petrol bombs hit the building. "If this was the work of any Syrian groups then these people are documenting that they have not understood the current modernisation and development transformations going on in the entire country," said the embassy. 
UNB, DHAKA - Home Ministry yesterday asked elite-force RAB to scale up vigilance in their uniform and plainclothes across the country following reports of a resurgence in criminal and extremist activities. State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar gave the directive at a high-level review meeting at the ministry on crime situation in order to improve further the law-and-order situation. "People love RAB and their aspiration from RAB is more. That's why RAB will have to work more cautiously to meet the people's aspiration," he said during the operational briefing to the Rapid Action Battalion. 
In the stocktaking the meeting noted that 91 people were killed in 
Babar asked them to intensify patrol to stop 'silent extortion', highway robberies and snatching so that people can feel secure every time everywhere in the country. RAB officials narrated the outcome of their drive against misuse of drugs and its traders across the country. Appreciating their activities, the minister said huge foreign investment is coming in and so law and order has improved. "Improved law and order situation will have to be continued for the sake of country's interest." 
Supporters of the al Qaeda leader in Iraq, 
Iraqi and US troops have arrested two top aides of Al-Qaeda's Iraq frontman, 
Hundreds of US soldiers have swept through the western Iraqi town of Haditha, searching homes and seizing suspected insurgents. "About 15 [troops] came to my house and searched everything, looking for arms and asking if I knew any insurgents," an academic, Maher Dali, told Reuters. At least two people are reported to have been killed in fierce gun battles. The area, 200km (125 miles) north-west of Baghdad, has been the scene of frequent attacks on US-led troops. An Associated Press report says helicopters dropped US marines near palm groves to block off one side of the town, while other troops established checkpoints and moved into the centre of the city on foot and in armoured vehicles. "Right now there's a larger threat than should be in Haditha and we're here to tell them that they're not welcome," battalion commander 
Interpol has stepped up its hunt for mysterious underworld don 
the Delhi police, Chaddha was not booked with substantial evidences and consequently he was granted bail. But soon afterwards he absconded. Delhi police and the Intelligence Bureau are still groping in the dark.
In what American military officials said was the largest Iraqi-led operation to date and evidence that the country's fledgling army was up and running, hundreds of Iraqi soldiers fanned out Sunday and Monday in a dangerous western suburb here, arresting 437 people they accuse of having ties to the insurgency. The officials said Tuesday that more than 2,000 Iraqi soldiers and special police commandos carried out the operation, which was aimed at rooting out insurgents and closing down car bomb assembly lines in Abu Ghraib, which is predominantly Sunni Arab and has been a hotbed of insurgent activity for months.
Afghan troops have captured 13 suspected Taliban insurgents, including a key militant commander, in a raid in the Zabul province, said Defence Ministry spokesman, General 
Four Al Qaeda suspects were arrested in 
Hundreds of armed police and soldiers surrounded a Sudanese refugee camp south of Khartoum yesterday, where at least 17 police and residents died in clashes last week. The armed forces sealed off the area, about 30 km south of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, said a spokesman for the people of Soba Aradi. "They have cordoned off all areas and have taken tough measures to stop people leaving," said spokesman Mohamed Ahmed Abdel Gader Arbab, a lawyer. Clashes erupted last week when Sudanese police tried to relocate refugees mainly from southern Sudan away from the camp. Officials said most of the victims died as crowds massed around the police station and burned it down. Khartoum Governor 
