RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (UPI) -- A Saudi terrorist convicted of committing several crimes in northern Saudi Arabia two years ago died in prison from natural causes, reports said Thursday.
Of course, they're real flexible on the definition of "natural"
The daily Okaz quoted security sources as saying Sultan Zeid, who was serving a prison sentence for his role in the assassination of a government official, a judge and a cleric in the province of Jouf in 2003, died from heart complications and diabetes.
Having your heart stop beating does qualify as a "complication"
They said he had been transferred for treatment to the prison hospital where he died.
Without a mark on the body, unless you count the needle mark.
'The body was handed over to his family on Wednesday,' the sources said, without specifying when he had died. Zeid was one of seven terrorists who were arrested in January 2004 and admitted their crimes.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 10:23 ||
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Suspected failed bomber Hussain Osman will be arrested on murder conspiracy charges when he arrives back in Britain after extradition from Italy. Scotland Yard said Mr Osman, 27, would also face charges of attempted murder and alleged firearms offences. Mr Osman, also known as Hamdi Issac, is accused of trying to blow up a Tube train at Shepherd's Bush, west London. He is being flown from Rome to RAF Northolt and on Friday will appear before magistrates sitting at Belmarsh. "Officers from the MPS Extradition Unit are accompanying Osman on the flight from Italy," Scotland Yard said. Once Mr Osman's plane lands in Britain, he will be taken to a central London police station to be formally charged, it added.
Ethiopian-born Mr Osman was arrested in Rome a week after the attempted bombings. He lost his appeal against extradition last week. He has been held in Rome's Rebibbia prison but on Thursday was taken to the city's Ciampino airport to be flown back to the UK. Mr Osman's Italian lawyer, Antonietta Sonnessa, appealed against him being sent back to Britain - she said he would not get a fair trial. The case is being seen as a test case for the new European Arrest Warrant, which is intended to speed up extradition in such cases.
The other three suspected bombers - Ibrahim Muktar Said, 27, Yassin Hassan Omar, 24, and Ramzi Mohamed, 23, are currently being held at Belmarsh prison in south-east London. They are charged with attempted murder and possessing explosives following alleged attempted bomb attacks on London's transport network. They and a fourth man, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 32, are also charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. The charges against Mr Asiedu relate to an unexploded device found two days after the bomb attempts. All four are due before a judge at the Old Bailey in December. The failed 21 July attacks took place two weeks to the day after four suicide bombers killed 52 passengers on the London transport network.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 08:59 ||
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Once Mr Osman's plane lands in Britain, he will be taken to a central London police station to be formally charged, it added.
Where he will be provided with the ubiquitous burqa-clad female solicitor, a halal meal, a koran and allowed 8 hours kip to recuperate.
Note to Al-Guardian readers: Remember this next time we see these tools threatening to saw someone's head off for daring to be the wrong nationality in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I say the bricing post and bagsy first go..
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/22/2005 9:22 Comments ||
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I say the bricing post and bagsy first go..
Sorry Howard, the what?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/22/2005 10:34 Comments ||
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How many ubiquitous burqa-clad female solicitors do they have to go around ?
Two Russian soldiers have been killed and five more injured in the past 24 hours, according to a toll given to Agence France-Presse by a member of Chechnya's pro-Russian government. Elsewhere, four Chechen police officers died and three were hurt, according to the government official, who asked not to be named.
One of the soldiers died and five were injured in 10 attacks on Russian forces over the past 24 hours. The second soldier was killed by a mine close to the southeastern village of Vedeno. Two of the police officers were killed in Grozny by shots fired from a passing car. Those in the car fled and have not been caught. The two other policemen died in an attack on their convoy near the village of Krasny Voskhod, in the northeastern Chyolkovskaya region.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:21 ||
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The American Embassy in Georgia took extensive preventive measures in Georgia for a possible terrorist strike on American interests in the region, said US Ambassador to Georgia Jon Teft on Wednesday. The Georgian news agency quoted Teft as saying that the procedures included setting security barriers around the embassy's building and replacing its communications system with a new one. Such measures created a form of noise for the embassy's workers during the past couple of days, he said. The employees, however, will keep on their jobs as usual, said the ambassador. Local authorities had blocked the way leading to the embassy located on the capital's heart. Washington is currently constructing a new headquarters for its embassy in Georgia.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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The European Union's second highest court ruled on Wednesday that the bloc can freeze the assets of people on a United Nations list of suspected terrorists, throwing out complaints lodged by alleged al-Qaeda associates whose bank accounts were blocked by the EU. The plaintiffs claimed their human rights had been breached by the UN, who had put their names on the list without allowing them to mount a defence, and had subjected them to inhuman and degrading treatment by leaving them without funds.
The Court of First Instance said the EU had the power to freeze terror suspects' assets under its treaties, and, because the bloc was merely implementing a UN directive passed early this summer and enforcing decisions taken by the UN Security Council.
"As they are required by the Security Council... these measures fall for the most part outside the scope of judicial review. They do not infringe universally recognised fundamental human rights," the court said. "The freezing of funds constitutes one aspect of the UN's legitimate fight against international terrorism," it stressed.
The EU has a list of people whose assets the United Nations has recommended should be frozen for alleged links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime, which was believed to have sheltered al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Swedish resident Ahmed Ali Yusf and Yassin Abdullah Kadi, who lives in Saudi Arabia, and the al-Barakaat International Foundation in Holland, all on the EU list, appealed to the court, claiming the 25-member bloc had no right to freeze their assets.
Wednesday's ruling which can be appealed at the European Court of Justice within two months - will strengthen the EU's hand in some 15 further cases due to come before the Court of First Instance. Other applicants include the Iranian Mujahadeen, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and a university lecturer from the Netherlands.
The decision, coupled with a new information system introduced by the international police agency Interpol, should put some much-needed punch into the EU's anti-terror fight: European police investigators regularly complain how a lack of cross-border communication hampers the detection and arrest of terror and other criminal suspects.
Interpol's news computer system includes data on 328 people and 199 groups and is available to all of the UN's 184 member states, including the EU, Ulrich Kersten, Interpol's representative on the Security Council told Interpol's general meeting in Berlin on Wednesday, the German Deutsche Welle radio station reported.
According to the UN, the potential frozen assets belonging to people in the database could amount to 90 million dollars worldwide.
Last October, the US authorities and the UK's Bank of England authorised their countries' banks to freeze accounts held by the Jordanian al-Qaeda militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid wa Jihad terror formation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:16 ||
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Nice move. It only took 5 years. I wonder if the UN will consider sanctioning it's Congo office? How about just freezing the whole stanky place! (After we get our money out, of course. lol)
Eleven Turkish soldiers were killed and 13 others were wounded in clashes between the Turkish security forces and the separatists of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) within the one-month ceasefire period.
That worked well, didn't it?
Turkish Anadolu News Agency quoted security sources on Wednesday as saying that the terrorist organization is still executing attacks against the Turkish forces, noting that 30 "terrorists" were killed and two were arrested since the organization announced a one-month ceasefire between August 20 and September 20. The sources said that clashes between the Turkish forces and armed militia were focused around the borders with Iran and Iraq, noting that terrorist demonstrations in several areas in southeastern Turkey lead to the death of two Turkish citizens. Thousands of Kurds left their homes in southeastern Turkey, where 12 million Kurds live, due to clashes between the two sides, which killed 37,000 people since 1984.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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UK Embassy staff member, Damir Rovisan, was arrested on Tuesday due to his responsibility for the embassy's blast on Monday, said Wednesday Croatian police in Zagreb. In a release, the police said it was still investigating how Rovisan obtained the hand-grenade that exploded in the embassy's reception hall, adding that Rovisan claimed that he obtained the bomb for personal protection after receiving threats from Croatian mafia and that he did not mean for it to go off. He, however, failed to justify carrying such a weapon without informing his superiors at the embassy.
The police said that Rovisan, who was a member of the embassy's security department, has links with organized-crime groups, but the embassy did not do any background check before appointing him. As the 28-year-old Rovisan was the only person injured in the blast, the Croatian authorities requested the permission of the UK Embassy to handle the investigations.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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Update. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Five Kuwaiti detainees participating in a hunger strike at the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have lost substantial weight and were pale and depressed during a recent visit, lawyers said Wednesday. Manolo! My violin!
All five pledged to starve to death unless they are released or brought to trial, and two were being force fed, according to attorneys Tom Wilner and Kristine Huskey, who received a court order allowing them to visit their clients at the base last week. "They both look like skeletons," Wilner said of the two who were being tube fed. Manolo! My other violin!
Detention center spokesman Sgt. Justin Behrens said the military does not comment on the conditions of individual prisoners â and the U.S. has not disclosed which Guantanamo detainees have joined the hunger strike that began on Aug. 8.
The number of those participating has dropped to 36 detainees â from a high of 131 â and all are in stable condition, Behrens said. You gonna eat that, brave Jihadi warrior?
At Guantanamo, the U.S. military holds about 500 detainees suspected of links to the al-Qaida terror network or Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime. Four of the prisoners have been charged and the military said Tuesday that it will proceed next month with a military trial against David M. Hicks, an Australian charged with conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy. One of the force-fed detainees, Fawzi al Odah, could barely sit up while they interviewed him, Wilner said. Manolo! Go out and buy me another violin!
Reading from notes of the interview, Wilner quotes al Odah as saying "We have no faith in the courts and this is the only thing we can do. If I die, it will be better than this hell." So get on the stick there, Fawzi. Times awastin!
They said another of the detainees, Abdullah al Kandari, had eaten nothing in 15 days and had lost substantial weight. "He was bleary-eyed. He could barely talk," Wilner said. I'll bet lawyer boy was pissed that he wasted his time.
The lawyers identified the other Kuwaitis participating in the strike as Mohammed al Dahaini, Sa'ad al Azmi and Abdulazziz al Shammari, who was the other one being force-fed. It could not be determined whether the men were still taking part, though their attorneys said the detainees had no intention of halting the protest. Fine with me. Manolo! More grapes!
A Yemeni immigrant ice cream shop owner was found guilty Wednesday of illegally funneling $21.9 million overseas in a case stemming from a major terrorism investigation.
Abad Elfgeeh, 50, was accused of transmitting money around the world without a license from bank accounts linked to his tiny storefront in Brooklyn.
Elfgeeh was not charged with any terrorism-related crime although prosecutors said his business was used by a Yemeni cleric convicted earlier this year of a scheme to fund Al Qaeda (search) and the Palestinian militant group Hamas (search).
The jury convicted Elfgeeh of conspiring to run an illegal money-transmitting business, running an illegal money business and structuring bank deposits to avoid reporting laws.
Elfgeeh, who could face 15 years in prison, looked stricken but did not move or speak when the verdict was read.
Prosecutors portrayed Elfgeeh as the mastermind of a complicated arrangement of "feeder accounts" and international transfers designed to hide the huge outflow of cash from his ice cream store.
Defense attorneys called Elfgeeh a pillar of Brooklyn's Yemeni immigrant community who broke no law because he ran a non-profit community service rather than a moneymaking business that required a license.
The money that went overseas came from hardworking immigrants looking to buy homes, purchase business equipment and support their families, the lawyers told the jury.
Elfgeeh came to the attention of FBI anti-terrorist agents when they investigated Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad (search), whom they eventually accused of funneling money from the United States to al-Qaeda and Hamas.
Al-Moayad was convicted of supporting and conspiring to support terrorism and sentenced to 75 years in prison in July.
Witnesses testified al-Moayad kept Elfgeeh's number in his phone book and called Elfgeeh someone he trusted to transfer money from the United States to Yemen.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:08 ||
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Terrorist Atta operated in Brooklyn too. NYC and US braindead authorities will get moving after more bloody bodies fly through the air. "Illegals just want to work'" GWB.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 13:11 Comments ||
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The problem with hawala schemes is that it's a retail effort, which means that a *lot* of people use them, including potential FBI informants and agents. This guy should have gotten smart and either quietly closed down his operation or started vetting transfers more carefully for terrorist connections. Instead, he chose to continue operating without a care. He is now paying the price.
The Iraqi soldiers had already searched the house, according to a sticker plastered across its front gate.
But when their commanding general and a U.S. colonel arrived one afternoon last week to praise their performance and observe them in action, the troops wanted to give a demonstration. With theatrical intensity, they charged the two-story structure on the nearly deserted block, rifles at the ready, while other soldiers and two reporters watched from the street.
A fiery explosion -- some soldiers said they saw a man throw a grenade, others said the door was rigged to blow -- erupted from inside, followed by bursts of gunfire. The shouting soldiers stumbled out through a cloud of smoke, covered in blood. The rest of the platoon, which had lost a lieutenant in a grenade attack the day before, appeared dejected, some huddling around the wounded, others sitting with their heads in their hands.
What happened next, commanders here said, suggested significant progress toward the goal of shifting security functions to Iraqi forces so that the United States can begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. When the clashes grew intense, the Iraqi soldiers did not shrink, American officers said.
"Okay, men, it's time to buck up and show our mettle," said a U.S. Special Forces soldier, acting as platoon commander, who allowed reporters to accompany the patrol on the condition that he not be named. "We can't let this stop us. We need payback!"
They went looking for revenge. When they were ambushed again, in a home one block away, they were ready. After a firefight, they came out smiling proudly, with several raising two fingers to indicate the number of insurgents killed.
"A couple of months ago, they might not have been able to pull it together after something like that," said Col. H.R. McMaster, commander of the U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, who witnessed the abortive raid and helped bandage an Iraqi soldier whose wounded hand was pouring blood onto the sidewalk. "They showed a lot of resolve. Eventually, they will be able to control this city."
The Tall Afar offensive, which began Sept. 2, is the largest urban military operation in Iraq since November's siege of Fallujah. Unlike many previous joint offensives, however, it is the Iraqi army that has the majority of the soldiers on the ground -- 5,000 of the roughly 8,500 troops involved -- that does the most intense fighting and that pays the heaviest price. At least nine Iraqi soldiers have been killed during the operation, compared with one American.
"We were not afraid. We are here to protect our country," said Pvt. Tarek Hazem, 28, of Baghdad, his hands and uniform still red with the blood of men he helped treat when the building exploded. "All we feel is motivated to kill terrorists."
Tall Afar's Sunni Muslim majority and its strategic location on a main insurgent smuggling route, 40 miles from Iraq's border with Syria, make the operation here an important test case for the transition of security duties to Iraqis, commanders said. "If we can get things under control and begin handing off responsibilities here, we can do it anywhere," McMaster said. "It won't happen overnight, but progress is being made."
But while it has provided evidence that the capabilities of Iraq's security forces are improving, the operation in Tall Afar has also laid bare the challenges they face as their role in fighting the insurgency expands.
Because the ranks of the Iraqi police force and army are filled mostly with Shiite Arabs and ethnic Kurds, they are perceived in many of the country's Sunni sections not as national forces but as factional hit squads bent on persecution. The ethnic tensions were evident in Tall Afar, a city of just over 200,000 predominated by Sunni Turkmens.
Most of the forces "are from the Badr Organization and the pesh merga ," said Ibrahim Khalil, 20, one of about 4,000 Tall Afar residents, almost all of them Sunnis, living in a makeshift camp established by the Iraqi Red Crescent outside the city. He was referring to the country's predominant Shiite and Kurdish militias, respectfully.
"They wear the military uniform for disguise," he continued. "Their treatment is very bad. They were taking people to detention prisons just because they are Sunnis since the start of the military campaign."
The Iraqi soldiers from the pesh merga, which for many years was targeted by the Sunni-led army of Saddam Hussein and has long supported Kurdish forces fighting the Turkish government, spoke openly of their zeal to fight Tall Afar's Sunni Turkmen-led insurgency, according to U.S. soldiers who worked closely with them. Meanwhile, U.S. commanders grounded the mostly Shiite police commandos a few days into the operation, alleging overly aggressive tactics.
"The Iraqi army are the real terrorists. Even what they write on our walls is evidence, like 'Long live pesh merga' or 'Long live Badr,' " said Adnan Hussein, 39, who moved with his family to the camp for displaced residents. "They enter our houses and turn everything upside down. They scare our children."
Military commanders stressed that the Iraqi army's 3rd Division is a diverse force that represents all ethnic and sectarian groups, even though it is led by Maj. Gen. Khorsheed Salim, a former deputy commander of the pesh merga. American commanders said they worked hard to encourage more Sunnis to become police officers or soldiers but were thwarted by insurgents threatening to kill anyone who joined. Last month, local Sunni sheiks were asked to submit lists of people willing to join the police force. They provided only three names.
"What we're working toward is a national army, a national security force, not a Shiite or a Kurdish force, and anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't know the situation," said Maj. Chris Kennedy, the 3rd Armored Cavalry's executive officer. "We just had a recruiting drive for the army and got 400 recruits to sign up. Almost all of them are Sunnis. They will start basic training soon."
The assault on Tall Afar has also highlighted the fact that American forces still provide their Iraqi counterparts with significant logistical support as well as leadership in the form of advisers operating at the small-unit level.
U.S. vehicles escorted trucks providing food and water from Iraqi bases, and American airstrikes eliminated insurgent positions long before the Iraqi troops attacked. During the assault, each unit of 20 to 30 Iraqi soldiers has been led by U.S. Special Forces, and during the house-to-house raids in one neighborhood, only the Americans, working with interpreters, interviewed residents and used radios to coordinate with other units working close by.
"There is a definite lack of junior-level leadership among the Iraqi forces," said Lt. Col. Gregory Reilly, who commands the 3rd Armored Cavalry's 1st Squadron.
When the 3rd Armored Cavalry arrived in Tall Afar more than four months ago, the city was largely under the control of insurgents, and the Iraqi army's 3rd Division had retreated to a few large bases elsewhere in the region. But in preparation for this month's operation, U.S. and Iraqi commanders began reasserting their forces' presence in the city by stepping up combat patrols.
The units complemented each other, McMaster said. The Americans had a large contingent of armored vehicles and logistics capabilities, but lacked enough infantry to sweep all of Tall Afar's neighborhoods. The Iraqis lacked infrastructure and equipment, but they boasted thousands of men to deploy to the streets.
Still, some early joint missions went badly. In June, a platoon of Iraqis led by an American officer and platoon sergeant was ambushed in the Sarai neighborhood, then an insurgent stronghold. Many of the Iraqis fled, leaving the two Americans to fend off the advancing fighters. An American lieutenant colonel was killed in the engagement.
U.S. and Iraqi commanders acknowledge that it will be many months before the Iraqi units are able to function on their own, a belief echoed by dozens of Tall Afar residents interviewed during the operation. One year ago this month, U.S. and Iraqi forces swept through Tall Afar, but when the Americans largely withdrew from the region, the insurgency returned, stronger than ever.
"If the Americans leave, the chaos will come back. The bad people will come back again, just like before," said Abdullah Wahab Muhammed Younis, one of the city's most prominent Shiite sheiks, who said insurgents have killed 14 members of his family and wounded 33 in the past year.
"The Iraqi army is stronger than it was, but they are not ready. Not yet."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:30 ||
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The terror group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a suicide attack on an American convoy in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday in which it says the US consul in Mosul was killed. However, there have been no reports of the death of a US consul, but on Monday a diplomatic security agent attached to the US State Department, Stephen Sullivan, died along with three private American security guards when a suicide bomber drove into their convoy.
In a statement posted on the Internet al-Qaeda in Iraq said: "Brother Karim Ansari from the city of Tel Afar from the Al-Bara bin Malik Suicide Brigades carried out an attack on a convoy of American vehicles yesterday carrying the US consul in Mosul, who was killed along with four of his personal bodyguards when two of the cars carrying them were destroyed."
In the message the terror group points out that the action is another attack carried out in response to the US military offensive on the rebel stronghold of Tel Afar, which ended last week. One military spokesman recently said that since August 26 they had arrested 211 suspects and killed 141 fighters in Tel Afar. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) estimates that some 5,000 families were forced to flee Tel Afar in the subsequent escalation of violence between insurgents and Iraqi and coalition troops.
Stephen Sullivan was the third American diplomat killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Fellow diplomatic security agent Edward Seitz was killed in October last year in a mortar attack on a US base near Baghdad International Airport. A month later James Mollen, a special adviser to Iraq's Higher Education and Scientific Research Ministry, was shot dead near the heavily-protected Green Zone in the capital.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:18 ||
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As a DSS agent I can assure you that the only State Department official killed was a very brave agent and the 3 BW guys who gave their lives for this country protecting people who are trying to make Iraq a better place. I was in Baghdad in Dec 03/Jan 04 and I was lucky many times - that was when we still used the airport road. I did not know Steve or Ed personally but I've walked a mile in their shoes (Iraq, Afghanistan, West Bank, Gaza, Sudan, and Algeria to name a few). Steve left a little son and I hope DSS does him right. I have not seen the scholarship fund pop up yet but the check will be on the way when it does. God's speed brothers. To Zarq and his pals - may a well trained Marine sniper find you in his sights soon. XOXO
#2
Thanks for the info, DIPSEC. We share your sorrow. May all those who seek to destroy freedom and civilization be quickly found by their reward, whether in a work accident, sniper bullet, or at the hands of their neighbors.
Guess they found a replacement for the one the US snuffed last fall ... A 9:19 minute video speech allegedly orated by Abu Hamza al-Baghdadi, a âresponsible figureâ in the Sharia Committee of al-Qaeda in Iraq, titled: âOur Battle - Loyalty and Innocence,â issued today, September 21, 2005, clarifies a segment of Abu Musab al-Zarqawiâs speech from September 14. Baghdadi focuses upon a claim that Zarqawi, when declaring war upon those Shiâites who followed the Iraqi government, had also threatened Sunnis with death if they went to vote on the constitution. He deems this as âpure lies and inventionâ and emphasizes that the Muslim Sunnis are the âsons of al-Qaeda whose blood was shed on the Land of Two Rivers (Iraq)â and are their people.
Abu Hamza al-Baghdad also makes three points in this regard, stating: groups that ascribe these âliesâ to Zarqawi should listen to the entire speech, not just parts of it; Zarqawi never threatened the Sunnis and reiterates that their path is to âfight all the crusaders and malicious Rafidites [derogatory term for Shiâites] who allied themselves with the infidels and helped them fight against the Muslims; and demarcates a division between an Iraq and non-Iraqi, believing that the latter is one who fled combat to live among âtyrants.â Further, according to this logic, Baghdadi avers that Zarqawi is âinfinitely more an Iraqiâ than people such as Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:14 ||
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Even ol' Zark has spinmeisters (other than the ones in the western media, that is)
#2
So Zarqawi, who if I am not mistaken is a Jordanian, is infinitely more Iraqi than the Iraqis! Glad that got straightend out. I was under the impression that Zarq was simply a murderous lunatic who deserves nothing better than being hunted down and shot like a rat at the dump.
Waving pistols and assault rifles, Iraqi police officers led an angry anti-British demonstration in the southern city of Basra on Wednesday, and the provincial council voted unanimously to stop cooperating with British forces in the area until Britain apologized for storming a police station to free two of its soldiers.
At least 200 people, mostly officers who work in the police station that was damaged in the raid, rallied outside Basra's police headquarters, demanding an official apology from Britain and the resignation of Basra's police chief, Hassan Sawadi, Iraqi officials said.
Later, Basra's 41-member provincial council voted unanimously to "stop dealing with the British forces working in Basra" until it received an apology for the raid on Monday, The Associated Press reported. In the raid, British tanks crashed through the police station's outer wall and freed two officers who had been detained by the Iraqi police.
To help ease tensions, the Iraqi prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, made a joint appearance in London with Britain's defense secretary, declaring that the incident was being investigated and "will not affect relations" between the countries.
But the provincial council's vote threatened to worsen the increasingly volatile atmosphere in Basra, where the British had prided themselves on their good relations with the Iraqi authorities. The incident has already been an embarrassment for Britain, with Iraqi officials accusing the British command in Basra of imperial arrogance and "barbaric" behavior in the raid.
It was not clear what the council's vote to stop cooperating with the British would mean in practice, or whether it would include an end to cooperation by the police. In addition to an apology, the council demanded that the British provide compensation for the families of those killed or wounded in the raid and said that it would punish employees who had not tried to defend the station against the British, The A.P. reported.
The details of the raid and its origins remain murky, with British and Iraqi officials offering different accounts. British commanders and government officials have said the Iraqi police handed the men over to Shiite militia members, who largely control the Iraqi police and military in Basra. After breaking into the police station, British officials said, British soldiers found the two men in a nearby house. Initially, some Iraqi officials confirmed that account.
But on Wednesday, Iraq's interior minister, Bayan Jabr, disputed the British account, telling the BBC that the soldiers had not been handed over to anyone else and that the British had acted on a rumor. A spokesman for Muhammad al-Waili, the governor of Basra Province, said the same thing in an interview, adding that the British were "claiming that to justify their illegal behavior."
The arrest and detention of the British officers, who were in Arab dress, was handled appropriately, said the spokesman, who agreed to discuss the episode on the condition of anonymity. A judge issued an arrest warrant and informed both the Basra governor and the city council about the case, he said.
He added that the Iraqi police had been justified in arresting and holding the men, who had opened fire after being stopped at a checkpoint.
As recriminations continued over the Basra incident, a senior aide to Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister of Iraq, accused the current Iraqi government of fabricating corruption charges against Mr. Allawi's former defense minister, Hazem Shaalan, Reuters reported.
On Monday, Radi al Radhi, the chief of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, said he expected warrants to be issued in the coming week for Mr. Shaalan and others in connection with the disappearance of more than $1 billion from the Defense Ministry.
In Amman, Jordan, Ibrahim al- Janabi, the aide to Mr. Allawi, said the accusations against Mr. Shaalan were part of a plot by Iran to smear Mr. Allawi and his secular allies.
Insurgent violence continued across Iraq. In Baghdad, three Iraqi officers were killed Wednesday when Iraqi and American forces clashed with insurgents in Mansour, an upscale district. At least five insurgents - one of them a woman - were killed, witnesses and Interior Ministry officials said.
The battle began when a hostage escaped from the house where the insurgents, all Sudanese citizens, were staying, Interior Ministry officials said. The Iraqi police then raided the house, and after coming under heavy fire from insurgents inside, they called for backup from Iraqi police commandos and American troops.
In Mosul, two Iraqi journalists have been killed by gunmen in the past two days, the Iraqi state television network reported. The victims were Ahlam Yusef, a sound engineer for the network, and Firas Maadidi, a newspaper reporter.
American military officials announced Wednesday that they had captured Abdul Ghafur Yahiyah al-Abdullah, an insurgent in Mosul who is accused of having worked as a driver for leaders of the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:10 ||
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WTF. They shouldn't apologize. They better not.
Compensation?!
Geez
Posted by: Jan ||
09/22/2005 2:06 Comments ||
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There was a riot that occured as the British pulled up to the police station. There is no apology required for removing the prisoners from the center of a riot.
#4
British media is reporting that al-Sadrites were effectively in control of Basra policing. The Brits who attacked the jail did not attack a national Iraqi force.
Apparently, both Sunni and Shiite Iraqis are chosing Islamic constitutions. I have to ask: has the billions spent in Iraq by Americans, been wasted to the benefit of the same kind of Islamofascist animals who perpetrated the 9-11 atrocities?
Even oil production in Iraq is worse than the post Saddam levels of 2.3 million per day. Sabotage has reduced production to 1.6 million PD. Either get tough or get out. I argue for getting tough. Why do so many Rantburgers support status quo policies in Iraq? Something is not penetrating.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
09/22/2005 3:49 Comments ||
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If the Brits gunned that crowd down they wouldn't be nearly so quick to start another riot.
Posted by: mac ||
09/22/2005 5:27 Comments ||
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#6
I doubt that would have worked - never did in Northern Ireland and would give the Islamonazis a cause. About time the Brits stopped co-operating on key infrastructure projects. Let it become the shithole it once was. Spiritual poverty breeds intellectual poverty breeds social poverty.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
09/22/2005 7:27 Comments ||
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#7
Yep, billions of dollars spent and thousands of lives lost just to create another fascist Islamic hell-hole which will no doubt be a source of terrorism in the West for years to come. Neato.
#9
this may point to political mistakes by Sistani - by going for a united Shiite front at the national level, it makes it difficult tor Jaafari to take on the locals in Basra - Sadrists and SCIRI. Ultimately the Shiite alliance looks less and less tenable - but will the more moderate Shiitte elements be willing otto rely more on Kurds, and even Sunni Arabs?
#10
"Oops, somebody blew up your power lines again, you say. Gosh, awfully sorry, but we're quite busy with the riots and all. Hope you get that fixed real soon. Bye."
#11
HUK: I doubt that would have worked - never did in Northern Ireland and would give the Islamonazis a cause.
British forces never pressed it in N Ireland. The British public got cold feet. This kind of thing works but you either have to have domestic public support or not have to worry about public support at all (i.e. like the Chinese government). There is no chance of British public support for this kind of thing. It works, but there is no public support for it. There is also no chance that the Labor party would support it. The American public would certainly be horrified - look at the reaction after the hazings at Abu Ghraib.
#12
LH: this may point to political mistakes by Sistani - by going for a united Shiite front at the national level, it makes it difficult tor Jaafari to take on the locals in Basra - Sadrists and SCIRI.
I've said from the beginning that Sistani is a mook who can't tie his own shoelaces. He is not a factor, despite coalition and media efforts to prop him up. Sadr is a factor. Zarqawi is a factor. Al-Douri is a factor. Sistani is just a mook who'll be dragged around by whichever player wins. He is not a player in his own right.
#13
he may be a mook, but its his guys sitting in the Baghdad ministries now - not Zarqs, or Douris, or Sadrs. He has been skillful in many ways - and i can see arguments (form his POV) for the broad Shiite alliance - I just think its causing problems now.
#14
It seems like he's the only one of those guys not engaged in violence.
btw, is there any anger in Britain over the capture of two troops?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/22/2005 16:41 Comments ||
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#15
Gee, I wonder if Britain has any more of those old Chieftans with the flamethrowers? I'm sure that would make an EXCELLENT riot-dispersal weapon. Not to mention a bit of a deterrent factor.
Sadr and his Tots need to be reduced to the crud at the bottom of a grease trap, and soon. That's absolutely essential if there is to be peace in Iraq in the near future.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/22/2005 16:42 Comments ||
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#16
Good point, Mrs. Davis.
It's my personal opinion that this is a major, class action, fuckup on the part of the British.
It does nothing to encourage the myth that "democracy" is working in Iraq, that the Iraqi police and military have any independent initiative aside from being lackeys to the American and British occupation---or that Iraqis will be given the capacity for sovereignty and home rule. Nope, it sure looks like a double standard, doesn't it?
Local law is apparently good enough for the locals, but certainly not for the Brits. Has anyone even wondered what the Brits in Arab dress were up to?
The United Nations is to move Iranian Kurdish refugees, living at Al-Tash refugee camp near the border town of Al-Ramadi, to Iraqi Kurdish areas. The decision was made because of the "deteriorating security situation" in Al-Ramadi, the UN official in charge of refugees Amin Awwad said Wednesday. "We have called for a special status to be given to the Iranian Kurds," Awwad said. He added that there were up to 680,000 Arab or Kurdish refugees in Iraq nowadays.
Turning to the issue of repatriating Iraqi refugees in Europe, Awwad called on the EU countries not to repatriate those who were "forcibly driven out of their country" and to "abide by international treaties in this connection." Meanwhile, the representative at the UN of the Kurdistan Regional Government Dindar Zibari said that a joint committee was formed representing the two Kurdish administrations of Irbil and Suleimaniya. The joint committee was formed in order to help the UN move the Iranian refugees to new and safer areas in Iraqi Kurdistan, Zibari said. He added that the Iraqi government also agreed to move the Iranian refugees to safer areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Several puzzling notes. First of all, they must mean a different Al-Ramadi, not the one West of Bagdad.
Second, they refer to Iranian Kurdish refugees. So, did they originate in Iran or Iraq, and where are they now? Then they mention Arab and Kurdish refugees in Iraq. Lastly moving refugees to safer areas.
The American Army announced on Wednesday killing of the chief of the so-called "Iraq Army of Al-Qaeda Organization" in an operation in the town of Haditha west of the capital. The army said in a statement that Shehab Hamed, also known as Abu Ali, was killed in a search operation in the town. The slain activist was responsible for attacks in Al-Qaem and Haditha, it said, adding that a child, used by the wanted as a shield, was shot dead in the operation. Two gunmen were killed and another was wounded in the same action.
The army reported arrest of a commander of Al-Qaeda, Abdel Ghafour Yahia Abdullah, and his personal driver in Mosul. He confessed that he had joined Al-Qaeda 18 months ago. Elsewhere, Iraqi troops arrested six gunmen in Al-Yusufiah, police said, adding that arms and explosives were found in their possession. In Al-Qaem, south of Al-Hella, a man tossed a hand-grenade on the house of a scholar, Lutfi Rajeh, wounding the cleric.
In the Baghdad district of Al-mansour, five gunmen were killd and another was wounded after the government troops burst into a house from where shots were fired in the direction of a police patrol. The authorities located up to 24 dead bodies over the past hours in various locations in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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snuffies
LOL, see what ya mean Fred. <)
Posted by: Red Dog ||
09/22/2005 0:18 Comments ||
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#2
... a child, used by the wanted as a shield, was shot dead in the operation.
#6
damn you mean you can join and be a commander in 18 months
Number 3 man in under six months, promotion rapid from that point on. I don't even want to think about what a mess their management training program has become. ;-)
The Israeli army has announced its withdrawal from two more Jewish settlements, thus completing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's historic pullout from the Gaza Strip and a small corner of the northern West Bank. The army left the settlements of Ganim and Kadim -- the first two enclaves to be declared evacuated in August -- on Tuesday evening, the military said in a statement. It pulled out of the nearby West Bank settlement of Sanur on Monday and Homesh last week.
On August 23, Sanur and Homesh became the last enclaves to be evacuated of Jewish settlers under Sharon's pullout plan. Israeli military sources have stressed that unlike the Gaza Strip, the area evacuated in the northern West Bank will remain under Israeli control with soldiers continuing to patrol the district. Hundreds of Palestinians swarmed into the evacuated Jewish settlement of Sanur in the northern West Bank on Tuesday after Israeli troops left the tiny enclave. A joyful crowd of civilians and policemen hoisted Palestinian flags from a former mosque, once used by Sanur settlers as a Jewish seminary and synagogue, as well as a former British mandate garrison, an AFP photographer said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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It is significant that the mosque was not razed by the Israelis, but used as a synagogue and seminary.
Of course, given the state of the islamist mind, this was probably a more intolerable act than razing the mosque.
Still, they'll keep the mosque as a sign of Islamic triumph, rather than raze it out of pique: The Hagia Sophia's beauty did not come from the Muslims, but from the Byzantines who first erected it as a Christian temple.
#2
Here's hoping that those who are now in the West Bank get everything they deserve.
Posted by: Scott R ||
09/22/2005 18:02 Comments ||
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#3
The Israeli deal is not necessarily a bad one. They have traded a little space for some security reliant on no one but themselves. Unilateral action is the only sane choice.
The sticking point has always been their trying to obtain security from their enemies, but that was a pipe dream. Their enemies were never willing to offer it at any price, and only by ignoring them and acting in their own interests does Israel really get what it wants and needs.
The future for the Israelis is truly disengagement from their enemies. Ignoring them, leaving them alone, not letting them attack effectively. Forcing the Paleos to look at themselves, which is truly hell for such irresponsible people.
Israeli troops broke into the Nour-Shams camp and the town of Shwaiyka in Tulkaream and arrested seven Palestinians Palestinian security sources said Wednesday that Israeli troops stormed into residences in Nour-Shams camp and Shwaiyka town arresting seven citizens who are active and close to the Islamic Jihad Movement. Troops arrested Namer Al-Goul, Ahmad Al-Goul, Sajid Abuharb, Mirie Shahada, Bahaa Jabir, and Mohammad Jabir from Nour-Shams camp, and Firas Duhala from Shwaiyka town in Tulkarem. Israeli army sources claimed that their troops arrested this morning members of a group connected to the Islamic Jihad Movement scheming for a suicidal attack in an Israeli city.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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Armed militants have begun attacks on oil installations in Nigeria's volatile Niger Delta after warning they would do so. The fighters are protesting the arrest of their leader who is being held in the capital, Abuja. Joe Bavier has this report from VOA's West Africa bureau in Abidjan.
Dozens of armed separatists sped in boats toward Niger Delta oil installations owned by U.S.-based oil firm Chevron. Fighters said they had taken over the Idama flow station and forced it to shut down. One commander said they would take over other installations and threatened to set them on fire or blow them up.
Just swell, oil prices will really spike up if that happens
Members of Mujahid Dokubo-Asari's Niger Delta's Peoples Volunteer Force had called for their leader's release. But a high court in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, instead ordered Mr. Asari to remain in detention for two weeks while charges of treason are prepared against him. The charges stem from a newspaper interview in which he is alleged to have called for the dissolution of Nigeria. Militants say thousands of their supporters are ready to be armed if he is not released, and some are patrolling the intricate system of creeks in the Niger Delta.
Military officials, who began setting up checkpoints for security this week, say they are ready to defend oil pipelines and wells. But faced with the growing threat of violence, some oil companies say they are removing employees from sensitive areas and are restricting the travel of others.
Last year, Mr. Asari announced, what he called, a full-scale war on foreign oil interests. The situation was calmed after President Olusegun Obasanjo met with him personally. The militant leader promised to disarm in exchange for government help. But an advisor to Delta State traditional rulers, Ologorun Atuyota Ejuhnre, says a lack of follow-up on government promises have spawned further resentment in a region that has remained impoverished despite rich natural resources.
"Apparently I do not think that much has been done," he said. "In fact, some of the papers have carried some publications that a lot of militias were being trained, about 6,000 young persons, who have been training with a view of declaring a republic of the Niger Delta."
Federal troops have been accused of violent crackdowns and human rights violations in their attempts to pacify the Niger Delta. Mr. Ejuhnre says the government's decision to bolster its presence there may end up causing more harm. "In my personal view, it will exacerbate the situation, because foot soldiers are likely to react rather negatively and violently. And I think a solution should be more of negotiation than clamping down," he said.
The Niger Delta has long been the scene of violent confrontations between federal troops and local militias. The armed groups are demanding a bigger share of oil revenues and blame foreign firms for widespread environmental destruction.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 14:31 ||
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Dozens of armed separatists sped in boats toward Niger Delta oil installations owned by U.S.-based oil firm Chevron. Fighters said they had taken over the Idama flow station and forced it to shut down. One commander said they would take over other installations and threatened to set them on fire or blow them up
I can't think of a better way to get the entire world on your ass.
These idiots have a death wish.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/22/2005 15:01 Comments ||
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#2
But someone's going to have to put boots on the ground to help them fulfill said death wish and I, for one, have absolutely no idea who might be in a position to do that right now.
#3
Are these the same tribe- the Ibo- who got whipped in the Nigerian civil war, back in the sixties? Same place. A nasty little war.
But if the boss is called Mujahid, there is a new element here. No prize for guessing.
#4
Grunter: Are these the same tribe- the Ibo- who got whipped in the Nigerian civil war, back in the sixties?
Ibos are Christians. Many moons ago, Frederick Forsyth wrote a book about the Biafran War that criticized British intervention in behalf of the corrupt and brutal Nigerian Federal Government - in the form of financial assistance and military aid. Now that they've had the benefit of 30 years of disastrous Federal rule, it's clear that the Ibos probably couldn't have done much worse with an independent country of their own.
#8
The Nigerian Civil War followed the conversion of over 300,000 central Nigerian tribesmen to Islam. Christian Southerners reacted by assassinating the "Saudana," a prominent Muslim leader. Perceiving a central government that did not represent their interests, the Ibos began an independent revolt. So why have Ibos now rallied around a Muslim terrorist? Why not? Current Western reaction to Muslim aggression has ranged from passive to regressive (GBW's subsidized Iranization of Iraq, in the name of Sharia constitutionalized nation building and Islamofascistic one-time democraticization). Beleagured South-South Nigerians have absolutely no allies to look for among the outside world. Muslim Aggressors are winning on every front.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
09/22/2005 21:56 Comments ||
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#9
don't these guys have email scams to run? Jeebus
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/22/2005 22:07 Comments ||
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#10
You'd think the federalis had enough sense to keep the golden goose healthy and safe from the locals getting their seething rage on ... but no. Very un-Nigerian of them to let their collective and quite greedy eye stray from the ball but then again ineptitude and incompetence in civil administration are time honored traditions also.
Criminal killed in 'shootout'
A listed criminal was killed and two policemen were injured during a shootout between the police and a gang of criminals in Sirajganj early yesterday.
Very early
Acting on secret information,
extracted from a previous suspect
police raided Someshpur village in Belkuchi upazila of the district around 3:00am
Your night shift at work
as members of an outlawed party were holding a meeting at a graveyard in the village.
That's handy
They arrested Lutfar Rahman, 38, from the spot while others managed to escape.
Don't they always? Well, yes
When the policemen were returning to Belkuchi an hour later,
returning to the scene of the up-coming "crime"
Lutfar's accomplices made a gun attack on them in a bid to snatch him away.
"Open fire wildly on the cops hiding behind da boss!"
Police opened fire in retaliation and at one point Lutfar was caught in 'crossfire' during the gunfight.
Getting "Caught in the Crossfire" was the point.
He died on the spot, police said.
"He's dead, Jim"
Sub-Inspector Shahidul Islam and Assistant Sub-Inspector Enamul Haque were injured in the incident. They were admitted to Belkuchi Upazila Health Complex and Doughnut Shop. Police recovered a shotgun with two bullets from the spot. Police said Lutfar was accused in 14 cases with murder, robbery and kidnapping charges. Later police arrested four accomplices of Lutfar, who were identified as Sultan, Takdir, Jahangir and Siraj.
Soon to appear in a graveyard to be named later
Man hacked to death
A man was killed allegedly by his in-laws at village Dattapara of under sadar upazila.
Ah, family.......
Local sources said on the day Sukur Ali, 30, of village Kamardiar, outskirts of the Natore town, went to his in-lawâs house where he locked into a quarrel with them. Following the quarrel, they hacked him with sharp weapon leaving him dead on the spot.
.....one of the leading causes of death
The police recovered the body and sent it to a hospital morgue.
"Paging Doctor Quincy!"
A case was registered with the police.
15 hurt in clash over sweetmeat distribution
Fifteen people were injured in a clash between two groups of villagers at Ufri under Gopalganj sadar on Monday. Of the injured, Rana Sheikh, 18, Anisur Rahman Munshi, 30, Liakat Ali Mollah, 52, and Atiar Rahman, 38, were admitted to a local hospital.
Witnesses said the clash erupted following a quarrel over sweetmeat distribution at a mosque.
Fighting over concession rights?
Posted by: Steve ||
09/22/2005 10:58 ||
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Do they talk to their kids over there about the dangers of sweetmeat? It always seems to lead to no good...
Posted by: Obnoxious New Jersey Guy ||
09/22/2005 11:43 Comments ||
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#3
As a young man growing up in the rural south, sweetmeat was always certain parts of a pig, deep-fried. I thought Muslims weren't supposed to eat pork...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/22/2005 14:25 Comments ||
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#4
Police recovered a shotgun with two bullets
More english lessons needed, Shotguns use "Shells"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/22/2005 14:33 Comments ||
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#5
Witnesses said the clash erupted following a quarrel over sweetmeat distribution at a mosque.
The Mosque is a bazzar?
Like the Bible story of Jesus throwing the "Moneychangers" out of the temple?
Haven't changed in 2005 years, have they.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/22/2005 14:53 Comments ||
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#6
#3 As a young man growing up in the rural south, sweetmeat was always certain parts of a pig, deep-fried. I thought Muslims weren't supposed to eat pork...
That's what I thought too, but it seems what they're talking about is sweetened curdled milk.
Think Curds sweetened with sugar and flavored, pressed into disc shape like cookies, or like a soft candy.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/22/2005 14:56 Comments ||
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#7
Sweet solid clabber. Oh Yummy days are here again. :<
Islamic militants have killed two members of the Algerian security forces in the latest attempt to sabotage a referendum aimed at ending 13 years of violence, newspapers reported on Wednesday.
Security forces were cracking down on rebel hideouts when a home-made bomb, believed to have been planted by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), exploded in M'sila on Tuesday, some 350 km (220 miles) from the capital Algiers, dailies El Khabar and El Watan said.
The al Qaeda-aligned GSPC, Algeria's largest outlawed rebel movement, has said it was opposed to laying down its arms in exchange for an amnesty.
Authorities were not immediately available for comment.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/22/2005 00:19 ||
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Two powerful bomb explosions Wednesday rocked a remote village of Southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan, wounding two persons, said police. First bomb went off near an intermediate college and second near Post office in Qalat, about 165 kilometers from Quetta, the provincial capital, a police official told KUNA. He said explosion near the Post office wounded two civilians, adding that, the two explosions also shattered window glasses of several nearby houses and buildings.
No group immediately claimed responsibility but police suspected local Baluch nationalists behind it. Baluch nationalists frequently target government installations, security forces and carry out small rock and bomb explosions to pressurize the government to sccumb to their demand of increased provincial autonym. Meanwhile, police said, a disposable squad seized a home-made bomb in Seryab road area in Quetta.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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A "disposable" squad? I wouldn't want to be assigned to that!
That whole southwest Balouchistan area is probably where most of the Taliban and Al-Q forces are hanging out, too. Rough neighborhood, if you're the wrong tribe.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/22/2005 14:27 Comments ||
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Pakistani security forces Wednesday in an operation arrested four suspected militants and seized huge cache of arms and ammunition in South Waziristan tribal agency, bordering Afghanistan, a day after two roadside bombs killed a soldier and a tribal elder in the area, said officials. About a hundred troops backed by gunship helicopters swoop Shakai area today and arrested four local suspected militants, security officials told KUNA.
They said that they arrested huge cache of arms and ammunition including bomb-making explosive material. The operation was conducted a day after two roadside bombs, being planted by suspected Islamic militants, in the area killed a soldier and tribal elder. Explosions also wounded five soldiers and three tribal elders. Pakistani military officials believe that scores of al-Qaeda suspects are hiding in the tribal region. These militants had fled Afghanistan during US-led military operations. Pakistan has deployed over 80,000 troops along its border with Afghanistan to check cross-border-movement.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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Dear Fred,
How does a person arrest ammo? lol. Great article. I hope they step it up. It's about time.
As many as seven people including four Taliban and three policemen were killed and four others wounded in overnight clashes in southern Afghanistan, security officials said Wednesday. Three policemen were killed and a senior officer wounded in Uruzgan province when a group of Taliban fighters ambushed a police vehicle in Choora area. The ambush and subsequent exchange of fire, lasted for several hours, killed a Taliban fighter also and wounded a senior police officer. Military and fresh police contingents have been dispatched into the area to net down the terrorists who, officials believed were there to sabotage the counting process.
In related violence incident in Zabul province, the law enforcing agencies (LEA) claimed they had shot dead three terrorists following a fierce fighting. LEA officials said police party was patrolling the area when they encountered the terrorists. In exchange of fire, three Taliban were gunned down while the rest fled the scene, they said. They added that a search operation had been launched in the area to net down the outlaws who had taken refuge in the nearby mountains.
Ballot counting remained suspended in several parts of the country including capital Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kandahar and some northern provinces for various reasons. JEMB officials, on Tuesday said the delay was due to logistic problems; however, independent reports arrived from scattered areas suggested the stoppage was caused by attacks on counting centres and lorries delivering the ballot boxes.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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BDNEWS Joypurhat correspondent said that police detained another member of JMB from village Komor in the district. But police shown him arrested Tuesday evening and disclosed it to the newsmen on Wednesday morning. Arrested Aminul Islam, 22, is an active member of Dr Galib led Ahle Hadith and also the Juba Sangha, police claimed. He was arrested following the confessional statement of another JMB member Idris Ali Mondal who was apprehended early 18 August. With the arrest, police in Joypurhat, so far nabbed 30 militants. Besides, Idris Ali and his son Abdul Jabbar was sent to the Joint Interrogation Cell (JIC) on a seven-day remand for interrogation, Abdullah Al Azad, Superintendent of Police (SP) of Joypurhat told this to the BDNEWS.
BDNEWS Bandarban correspondent adds: Maulana Abdul Malek, Imam of Bandarban district council mosque, was taken on a three-day remand for interrogation. The members of intelligence agencies nabbed him on September 19 on charge of his link with the series of bomb blasts. BDNEWS Lakshmipur correspondent said: three JMB militants, among the arrested four, were sent to the jail after completion of remand. They are: Abdur Rahman alias Shahjahan, Abdur Rahim and Moulvi Ismail Hossain. The other arrestee, Abul Hossain, was taken on two-day fresh remand after completion his three-day remand. BDNEWS Chapai Nababganj correspondent said the arrested JMB member, Shakhawat Hossain, was taken on a seven-day remand for interrogation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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I'm not real confident of them actually catching them, but the cops are hot on their tail. Got some elementary OB info in here, though...
The law enforcing agencies continued their drive in the city and elsewhere in the country for nabbing seven Islamist militants including the dreaded chieftain of Jagrata Muslim Janata (JMB) Siddiqur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai and other top functionaries of Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a competent source in DB (Detective Branch) of police said .
Meanwhile, former lance naik of Army Harunur Rashid, who was arrested from Manipuripara in the city on Tuesday on charge of training JMB cadres in using sophisticated arms, confessed to his link to the August 17 bombings and disclosed the names of some VIPs including an influential leader of an Islamist party, he added. On the other hand, DB police arrested two more suspected JMB leaders including a district level leader of the outlawed party from Gazipur yesterday for their suspected involvement in the August 17 countrywide serial bombings in which two people were killed and more than 200 injured. The arrested are Abdur Rahman alias Masud (18) and Nurul Islam alias Ujjal alias Jubair. Both of them confessed to their links to the August 17 bombings and gave vital information about the terror attacks.
It is learnt that there are five tiers in the organizational structure of JMB. The five tires from lower level are Sathi or Sudhi, Gaiyer Ahsar, Ahsar or Ameer, Majlish-e-Sura and Shaikh. The Sathis or Sudhis are selected from comparatively young aged people and devotees. Those who are in charge of districts are called Gaiyre Ahsar and the divisional level leaders are called Ahsar. The Majlish-e-Sura is the second tier of JMB comprising seven leaders including Bangla Bhai. The seven members have veto powers. If one of the seven members uses his veto power against any particular decision, the matter is rejected by the organization. The seven members of Majlish-e-Sura played a key role in the August 17 bomb blasts. The supremo of JMB is called Shaikh and Shaikh Abdur Rahman is the chief its supreme body.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/22/2005 00:00 ||
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"Masud was arrested following the confessional statement of his cousin"
See, you ask the right questions and they spill the beans. Maybe we should lease Gitmo to these guys.
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.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (UPI) -- A Saudi terrorist convicted of committing several crimes in northern Saudi Arabia two years ago died in prison from natural causes, reports said Thursday. 
Suspected failed bomber Hussain Osman will be arrested on murder conspiracy charges when he arrives back in Britain after extradition from Italy. Scotland Yard said Mr Osman, 27, would also face charges of attempted murder and alleged firearms offences. Mr Osman, also known as Hamdi Issac, is accused of trying to blow up a Tube train at Shepherd's Bush, west London. He is being flown from Rome to RAF Northolt and on Friday will appear before magistrates sitting at Belmarsh. "Officers from the MPS Extradition Unit are accompanying Osman on the flight from Italy," Scotland Yard said. Once Mr Osman's plane lands in Britain, he will be taken to a central London police station to be formally charged, it added. 
Two Russian soldiers have been killed and five more injured in the past 24 hours, according to a toll given to Agence France-Presse by a member of Chechnya's pro-Russian government. Elsewhere, four Chechen police officers died and three were hurt, according to the government official, who asked not to be named.
Eleven Turkish soldiers were killed and 13 others were wounded in clashes between the Turkish security forces and the separatists of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) within the one-month ceasefire period.
UK Embassy staff member, Damir Rovisan, was arrested on Tuesday due to his responsibility for the embassy's blast on Monday, said Wednesday Croatian police in Zagreb. In a release, the police said it was still investigating how Rovisan obtained the hand-grenade that exploded in the embassy's reception hall, adding that Rovisan claimed that he obtained the bomb for personal protection after receiving threats from Croatian mafia and that he did not mean for it to go off. He, however, failed to justify carrying such a weapon without informing his superiors at the embassy.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Five Kuwaiti detainees participating in a hunger strike at the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have lost substantial weight and were pale and depressed during a recent visit, lawyers said Wednesday.
The terror group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a suicide attack on an American convoy in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday in which it says the US consul in Mosul was killed. However, there have been no reports of the death of a US consul, but on Monday a diplomatic security agent attached to the US State Department, Stephen Sullivan, died along with three private American security guards when a suicide bomber drove into their convoy.
A 9:19 minute video speech allegedly orated by 
The United Nations is to move Iranian Kurdish refugees, living at Al-Tash refugee camp near the border town of Al-Ramadi, to Iraqi Kurdish areas. The decision was made because of the "deteriorating security situation" in Al-Ramadi, the UN official in charge of refugees Amin Awwad said Wednesday. "We have called for a special status to be given to the Iranian Kurds," Awwad said. He added that there were up to 680,000 Arab or Kurdish refugees in Iraq nowadays.
The American Army announced on Wednesday killing of the chief of the so-called "Iraq Army of Al-Qaeda Organization" in an operation in the town of Haditha west of the capital. The army said in a statement that 
Israeli troops broke into the Nour-Shams camp and the town of Shwaiyka in Tulkaream and arrested seven Palestinians Palestinian security sources said Wednesday that Israeli troops stormed into residences in Nour-Shams camp and Shwaiyka town arresting seven citizens who are active and close to the Islamic Jihad Movement. Troops arrested 
Criminal killed in 'shootout'
Two powerful bomb explosions Wednesday rocked a remote village of Southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan, wounding two persons, said police. First bomb went off near an intermediate college and second near Post office in Qalat, about 165 kilometers from Quetta, the provincial capital, a police official told KUNA. He said explosion near the Post office wounded two civilians, adding that, the two explosions also shattered window glasses of several nearby houses and buildings.
Pakistani security forces Wednesday in an operation arrested four suspected militants and seized huge cache of arms and ammunition in South Waziristan tribal agency, bordering Afghanistan, a day after two roadside bombs killed a soldier and a tribal elder in the area, said officials. About a hundred troops backed by gunship helicopters swoop Shakai area today and arrested four local suspected militants, security officials told KUNA.
Ballot counting remained suspended in several parts of the country including capital Kabul, Nangarhar, Laghman, Kandahar and some northern provinces for various reasons. JEMB officials, on Tuesday said the delay was due to logistic problems; however, independent reports arrived from scattered areas suggested the stoppage was caused by attacks on counting centres and lorries delivering the ballot boxes.
BDNEWS Joypurhat correspondent said that police detained another member of JMB from village Komor in the district. But police shown him arrested Tuesday evening and disclosed it to the newsmen on Wednesday morning. Arrested 
The law enforcing agencies continued their drive in the city and elsewhere in the country for nabbing seven Islamist militants including the dreaded chieftain of 
