A U.S.-led coalition military transport helicopter crashed while conducting combat operations in eastern Afghanistan, killing all 10 soldiers on board, a U.S. military spokeswoman said Saturday.
The CH-47 Chinook crashed late Friday while on a mission in support of Operation Mountain Lion, an offensive to root out Taliban and Al Qaeda militants near the mountainous border with Pakistan. The crash was not the result of enemy fire, said Lt. Tamara D. Lawrence, a coalition spokeswoman. "The remains of all the 10 soldiers have been found and there are no survivors," she told The Associated Press. "There is no indication that the helicopter came down due to some enemy action."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/06/2006 05:32 ||
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#1
For those who would rather apply, 'duty, honor,
country' towards progressing the reconstruction,
(instead of making offensive and snide comments
about the Paki's, Iraqi's and Islam in general),
tell your SecDef's the Iraqi's and Afghani's
are desparate for those $100B's in aid that's
been pledged for reconstruction, but instead is
being siphoned off to civilian-contractor cronies,
with nothing on the ground after four years now,
(!four years!) except fire-base Anaconda, and a
$$3B marble hole-in-the-ground in the Green Zone.
Where's our indignant rage at theft of US taxes?
Imagine your own town after 4 to 25 years of war,
w/ every building in town pocked with shell holes,
water now undrinkable, sewage plant destroyed and
sewage flowing through your streets, power plants
destroyed so no reliable electricity, generators
in f--king hallways of office buildings for power,
everyone on cell phone cards, no landlines, and
best they can hope is bread and (bottled) water.
Then US perp's of this war come to your town with
their troops, patrolling your alleys and kicking
in your doors in the middle of the night, saying
they promise to reconstruct their damage, but all
you see, on the ground, is humvees and strykers,
mercenaries, bullet-proof LandCruisers,
backroom deals for $B's, but then nothing being rebuilt.
A perverted SNAFUBAR 'Coalition of the Cross'!
The purpose of the Gospels, spoken according to
Luke to the wise, the influential and those of
noble birth, (namely, Americans), appeals to all
of US, and to any who would listen, to take up
their cross, and follow Jesus in a discipleship
characterized by repentance, humility, joy,
generosity, and the purposeful use of one's
worldly wealth and influence to win friends for
ourselves and the Kingdom. Christians are to
become channels or servants of the loving mercy
of God to the poor: to preach good news to the
poor (Lk. 4:18; 7:22), to invite the poor to the
banquet of God (Lk. 14:13, 21), and to promote
justice and protection for the poor (Lk. 8:1-8).
Not just to make egregious profits, by bleeding
away our SSTF/Medicare, for Wall Street coffers.
#2
Let's see .... are you from Evergreen or working as an intern in Olympia? In either case, the inserted carriage returns suggest a cut and paste job.
Sloppy, and lazy to boot.
And that's just the thinking .... the execution was pretty shoddy too.
Yes, I went to Evergreen, but to learn to speak French, (not Evergreen's particular brand of furry politics), so I could visit the Middle East and speak a common language which isn't offensive to them, since last time I checked, Bush hasn't made the Middle East into our 51st State, yet.
Lazy? No. I've been to the hot zone (without body armor, weapon or security guards) with a private reconstruction team, which at least earns me the right to post, since last time I checked, Rumsfeld hasn't succeeded in voiding our 1st Amendment.
Execution sloppy? You may be right. $375B down the rathole of DoD, and another $108B in the pipeline, Iraq in total meltdown, Afghanistan tipping that way, and Halliburton-KBR with a 200% increase in stock value since 2003, $8.8M to Cheney's pocket.
You still haven't addressed the dialogue. Where is the $10B Bush promised Kofi for AIDS in Africa, so he could get Kofi's buy-in for UN SC vote on Iraq?
Where is the $10B Bush promised for reconstruction which is already being secretly siphoned back to Iraq defense contracts, and Katrina slush funds?
$35B spent on Katrina, still 300,000 residents of New Orleans homeless, and 30,000 unaccounted for.
May those 10 brave guys and gals on that Chinook not have died for a live-fire war-game 'chimera'.
#10
Now why do I think that our troll isn't really interested in dialogue?
Could it be because s/he hijacked an entry to harrangue us on a topic with flimsy connections to the story? Could it be the sweeping allegations and indictments without details or proof?
Yup, it could be .....
but mostly it's because s/he wrote reams and reams of words before it occurred to him/her that it would be politic to toss out a little mention of the deaths of 10 people -- which is what the story is about.
#11
Hey CC581: I'm from New Orleans. Don't use me or my city to make your chickenshit political points. Some of us are living in trailers, but there are American flags flying from those trailers.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/06/2006 19:49 Comments ||
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#12
Would it be gauche to note the Rachel Corrie special tomorrow at IHOP? S'pose so....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/06/2006 19:54 Comments ||
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As for you cc581: Shame on you for using a report of the death of ten hero's to spout your chickenshit drivel. You have every right to debate the war, but by doing it here shows are a coward of the first degree that stoops the very lowest levels of humanity. From a soldiers perspective this is not the place to be ranting policy but the place to thank these men and their families for their service. From me to you: Fuck off!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/06/2006 22:51 Comments ||
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#15
Bless those troops and their families for what they gave that we might stay free, and to bring the hope of freedom to the Afghanis halfway around the world.
In stark contrast, who would be so stupid to learn French, a language spoken by very few in the Muslim world (some in Morocco, Algeria, and Lebanon, I think, but only those wealthy enough to have been educated in French schools) when they would be so much more effective learning the languages actually spoken over there: Arabic and Kurdish in Iraq, I think Pashto and perhaps Urdu in Afghanistan, Arabic throughout the rest of the Arab world and Egypt. Such innate inability to think clearly is honestly demonstrated by the idiocy of the post. And the poor thing actually thought to change our thinking. Ah,well. At least it can teach French at the secondary level if it thinks to acquire a teaching certificate, and there it can do no harm.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Two Italian soldiers were killed and four wounded by a roadside bomb that exploded while they were on patrol south of Kabul on Friday, a military spokesman said. Two military vehicles were patrolling together when one of them was hit, said Maj. Luke Knittig, a Kabul-based spokesman for NATOs International Security Assistance Force. The soldiers that were attacked in this case were exercising duties to assist with security, he said. The very knowledge that there are security threats in the Kabul area is why they were out.
The attack apparently occurred in Kabul province, just south of the capital on a main road, he said. The four injured soldiers were evacuated to a medical facility, he said.
Condolences to the families and to the wounded, and a big thank you to Italy for standing with us in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/06/2006 00:04 ||
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#1
AQ knows that the new Italian LLL government under Prodi ran on pulling out troops from Iraq and are sympathetic to doing so. AQ sees the weakness and is targeting them so they either pull our early or so when they do pull out later this year either way AQ gets to claim they are strong and forced them out and to run.
The sad part is Prodi will probably pull all the Italian forces out early. And this article her if true just makes all the Italian elections even more pitiful and sad.
#2
To make C-Low's link clear, there is an allegation that Italian communists cooperated with Iranians to help kill three Italian soldiers in Iraq. That's different than what happened in Afghanistan. Take a look at the link, however -- if true, the communists need to be removed from political power in Italy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/06/2006 1:07 Comments ||
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In a last minute commitment to the peace process, just as proceedings were about to close, a second Sudanese rebel group
That'd be the Liberation Movement and Army of Sudan, of course...
Are you sure it's not the Popular Front Army for the Liberation of Sudan?
late Friday signed on to the fledgling peace concluded earlier in the day by the main branch of the Sudan Liberation Movement and Army (SLMA) with the Khartoum government. The move triggered thundering applause in the tension-filled atmosphere, in an expression of relief after two years of tedious peace talks. The splinter group of the SLMA abandoned its leader, Abdul Waheed Al-Nur, to join the main SLMA in supporting the peace deal to end three years of political and civil conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur.
"Splitters!"
"Piss off, Abdul Waheed!"
The main branch of the SMLA signed earlier Friday after lengthy talks and the intervention of high ranking figures from the US and Britain. The rebel Justice and Equality Movement remains the only holdout on the peace deal brokered by African Union (AU) mediators. The main SLMA group balked at signing the deal until it decided that cooperation could open the death-plagued Darfur region to international support.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2006 00:00 ||
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Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) shot dead two alleged snatchers at Mohammadpur in the capital yesterday.
The RAB, on duty night and day.
Rab also arrested a taxicab driver who was injured during the incident.
The deceased were identified as Mohammad Maksud, 25, son of Billal Hossain, hailing from Kamrangir Char and Abdul Jalil Sheikh, 22, son of late Moslem Sheikh, hailing from Jafrabad of Mohammadpur. Mohammad Ali Sheikh, relative of both the victims, said Maksud, who runs a makeshift tea stall in Kamrangir Char left the house after altercation with his family and went to his relative Abdul Jalil Sheikh in Jafrabad.
His mother apparently didn't love him.
Jalil along with Maksud went for Chawkbazar at around 9:30am to buy some raw materials for his newly opened candle factory, he added.
... and then something happened, and then ...
Family members said a rickshaw puller informed them at around 12:00noon that bullet-hit Jalil was lying on Iqbal road.
Not even the obligatory trip to the Chatterjee Medical Emergency Room. Must have really been bullet-hit.
They identified the bodies at Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue at noon.
"Sure glad you guys could identify them, we didn't have a chance in hell."
Mohammadpur police said a gang of four including the two dead, who were riding a yellow cab, snatched valuables from rickshaw passengers on Iqbal road when a patrol vehicle of Rab-2 reached the spot and chased the cab.
"Foot-propelled pedicab don't fail me now!"
As both the parties exchanged fire, Maksud and Jalil received bullets, police said.
"Oooch! Ouuch! Rosebud!"
Police arrested the cab driver Akmal, 28, who is now detained at Mohammadpur Police Station.
And soon to be taken to identify the lair of the gang of pedicab drivers ...
Family members said the dead were not snatchers and there was no case against them with any police station.
"They were good boys, simple candle-makers!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/06/2006 00:10 ||
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#1
Guess I'll have to find another makeshift tea stall...
A man will appear in court charged with soliciting murder, in connection with February's Muslim cartoon protests. Abdul Muhid, 18, from east London, is charged with two counts of soliciting to murder and is due to appear in custody at Bow Street Magistrates Court. He is one of six men charged over their alleged involvement in the London demonstrations against the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish paper in September.
Muhid was arrested along with another man, Anjem Choudary, 39, on Thursday at Stansted Airport. Choudary was charged last night under the Public Order Act with organising a procession without the required written notification to the police. He has been bailed to appear before Bow Street magistrates on May 11.
#4
Cool. Anjem Choudary is in jail. Be a pity if some patriotic Brit shivved him.
Please. He'll be surrounded by a mob of loyal ROPers.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/06/2006 13:12 Comments ||
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#5
Please. He'll be surrounded by a mob of loyal ROPers.
Funny, that seems to be a pretty typical jail environment, even in so called christian countries. That's probably because, regardless of geographical location, law enforcement is islamophobic or something. No other explanation.
The Palestinian Authority's refugee minister Atef Adwan arrived in Sweden on Saturday morning to start his controversial visit, local media reported.
Adwan is attending a conference of Palestinian exiles in the southern Swedish city of Malmoe, Swedish news agency TT reported.
"We are a peaceful people," Adwan told reporters as he arrived in Malmoe.
The decision to give a Swedish visa to a Hamas representative has been heavily criticized from several quarters. The Israeli government protested to Swedish foreign minister Jan Eliasson, saying the visa "legitimizes representatives of a terror organization."
Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson on Friday defended the move, saying the consulate official in Jerusalem was only following rules when he gave the visa to the Palestinian Minister for Refugee Affairs.
He added that if visa matters became a political decision then "we would be on a slippery slope".
A European Commission spokeswoman has said that the EU has no common policy about granting visas to Hamas members. She said recent discussions by foreign ministers have clarified that "there would be no political contacts with Hamas. However, there has been no decision on the granting of visas."
Nothing more on this yet; waiting to hear whether arrestees are named Mohammed, or just had too much to drink ...
Saturday, May 6, 2006; Posted: 5:08 p.m. EDT (21:08 GMT)
NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) -- Authorities boarded an American Airlines plane Saturday and detained five men after it landed at Newark Liberty International Airport, according to a spokesman for the airport's operator.
The plane was bound from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport when an air marshal notified authorities of five men he considered suspicious, according to Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
They had no weapons, said Tim Smith, an airline spokesman.
Port Authority police took the five men into custody immediately after the plane landed at 3:20 p.m., LaVorgna said.
LaVorgna did not have more details on why the men were considered suspicious. The five men remained in custody at the airport Saturday evening. The FBI had been notified and was expected to take over the investigation, LaVorgna said.
The plane was carrying 121 passengers and five crew members, Smith said. All other passengers had been released.
#1
This might go into the blackhole of secrecy. It isn't the first such incident.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/06/2006 17:56 Comments ||
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#2
TV news said it was a flight attendant who saw a couple of muzzies reading flight manuals. All have been released, which American Airlines described as a "no threat" situation.
#10
keep an eye on the Jooooo - we know how they are in hijacking.....
oh, wait, my bad
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/06/2006 20:31 Comments ||
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#11
After seeing the 14 Syrian musician incident report deemed, "Classified", I'm not so quick to dismiss this. We were told in the musician incident that they also were "innocuous" and were released.
Is it possible that these 5 guys are the diversion, (identifying air marshalls and passengers that will fight back) in order to prepare for the next attack?
The US has released five Chinese Muslim men from Guantanamo Bay and sent them to Albania, declining to send them back to China out of concern they would face persecution.
Who the hell gives a squat if they face persecution?
The men are ethnic Uighurs, from Xinjiang in far-western China. Many Muslim Uighurs want greater autonomy for the region and some want independence from China.
But not all are terrorists. Not even most.
The Chinese Government has waged a relentless campaign against what it calls the violent separatist activities of the Uighurs. The Pentagon said in a statement: "The United States has done the utmost to ensure that the Uighurs will be treated humanely upon release. Our key objective has been to resettle the Uighurs in an environment that will permit them to rebuild their lives." The Pentagon says it has determined the five men should not be considered "enemy combatants".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2006 00:00 ||
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What a little bird tells me is that these guys were picked up doing guerilla warfare in Afghanistan's border areas - problem is it was Chinese they were hunting, but got into wrong-place wrong-time with US forces. And they had gotten the Taliban to help them, so thats why they were picked up - initially they looked like Talib allies. Sleep with a dog and you're going to get fleas. But honestly the way the Chinese treat the Uighars, I can hardly blame them for going to any one who will give them guns and ammo.
#3
Can't help but wonder if the Uighur plane bound for Albania stopped over at Pope AFB and Fort Bragg for extended "maintenance and crew rest" enroute.
#4
You'll never hear Osama or Zawahiri call for jihad against the Chinese though...
Posted by: john ||
05/06/2006 13:34 Comments ||
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#5
Because China is not seen as decadent and ripe for conquest, as opposed to multiculturalist, relativist, PC, materialist, hollow, immigration-ridden West???
Please, don't tell me it's that, I'm not sure I could handle the Truth.
KABUL (Reuters) - Pakistan is not doing enough to help root out Taliban and al Qaeda leaders who have found safe haven in its lawless tribal lands along the Afghan border, a senior U.S. security official said on Saturday.
Most al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are in Pakistan, and while the United States did not know where Osama bin Laden was hiding, he was probably on the Pakistan side of the border, said Henry Crumpton, State Department coordinator for counterterrorism.
Pakistan, a vital U.S. security ally, has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda members and lost hundreds of its troops battling militants. But Afghan officials have complained insurgents were able to gather support and launch raids from the safety of Pakistani territory.
Violence has intensified in parts of Afghanistan in recent months to its worst level since U.S. and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.
"Has Pakistan done enough? I think the answer is 'no'," Crumpton told a news briefing in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
"Not only al Qaeda, but Taliban leadership are primarily in Pakistan, and the Pakistanis know that," Crumpton added.
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan deteriorated sharply this year when Afghanistan again said Taliban leaders were operating from Pakistan.
Pakistan rejects accusations it helps the Taliban.
Crumpton said eliminating militant safe havens in Pakistan's tribal lands was crucial.
"It's something we have to help the Pakistanis work through because it cannot remain a safe haven for enemy forces," he said.
"Right now, parts of Pakistan are, indeed, that."
The militants are fighting to oust foreign troops and the government. They have launched a wave of roadside and suicide bombings, attacks and assassinations in recent months.
"We are concerned by the increase in violence in the south and east," Crumpton said.
"We see the alliance of al Qaeda and elements of the Taliban, and, increasingly, narco-traffickers -- a confluence of allies -- is a cause for concern," he said.
More than 7,000 NATO troops, most from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, are in, or soon arriving in, the dangerous Afghan south.
NATO will take command there from a separate U.S.-led force in July. The deployments will let the United States cut its Afghan force by several thousand, to about 16,500.
Critics say the NATO troops risk getting bogged down in a relentless insurgency, funded in part by the huge opium trade and sustained by havens in Pakistan.
Posted by: john ||
05/06/2006 13:31 ||
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#1
The official motto of the Pakistan Army is Iman-Taqwa-Jihad fi sabilillah
Faith, Fear of Allah, Jihad in the way of Allah
Kinda makes sense that they won't hunt jihadis too hard.
Posted by: john ||
05/06/2006 14:39 Comments ||
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#2
publicly saying what's been said in private to no avail?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/06/2006 15:05 Comments ||
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#4
I can see the sides lining up pretty clearly for a Guns of August replay. U. S. airstrikes on Iranian sites. Iran and Hezhbollah sense it's now or never and ignite war in Israel and southern Iraq. Rapid response by Israel extends tooccupation of Damascus. Iraqis sieze Iranian gulf oil fields. Pakistani seething erupts into war with India and Afghanistan. Nothing is concluded mnearly as quickly as either side expected. Do we get all Perv's nukes?
ABU Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda chieftain in Iraq (or maybe not, see below), is changing tactics, said London's Sunday Times.
Al-Zarqawi "is attempting to set up his own mini-army and move away from individual suicide attacks to a more organized resistance movement," wrote Michael Smith.
Col. John Gronski of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard indicated why the change in tactics isn't such a good idea. Colonel Gronski is commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the Pennsylvania Guard's 28th Infantry Division, stationed in Ar Ramadi.
Iraqi troops supported by Colonel Gronski's soldiers killed more than 100 insurgents in a battle last week, Colonel Gronski told CNN. Two Iraqi soldiers died in the battle. No Americans were killed.
The battle started when coalition forces noticed insurgents removing weapons from a train station in the southeastern part of the city. Colonel Gronski slammed them with an air strike, and then the Iraqi troops moved in.
"The Iraqi army is conducting aggressive operations here based on human intelligence from the people of Ramadi themselves," Colonel Gronski said.
A 50-to-1 exchange ratio against you is not a good thing for a guerrilla force.
Most guerrilla wars are not successful. In those that have been successful, guerrillas attacked their enemy's weaknesses, not his strength. Al-Qaeda's change in tactics abandons their strengths and plays into ours.
The most effective insurgent weapon against American troops has been the roadside bomb, or IED. They're hard to detect, only small numbers of insurgents are required to place them, and ambushes can be triggered from relative safety.
The most effective insurgent weapon against the Iraqi army and police has been the suicide bomber. The suicide bomber has also been the principal means by which al-Qaeda has tried to stir up sectarian conflict, and its chief propaganda weapon.
By massing for conventional guerrilla attacks, insurgents are easier to detect, and become lucrative targets for coalition firepower. The Ramadi battle was especially lopsided. But every firefight with U.S. troops - and almost every firefight with Iraqi soldiers - has ended badly for the insurgents.
So why the change in tactics? It could be that al-Zarqawi is an idiot. The manner in which he has alienated former allies among Iraq's Sunnis suggests so. But the Sunday Times' Mr. Smith said he has run out of options:
"Faced with a shortage of foreign fighters willing to undertake suicide missions, Zarqawi wants to turn his group into a more traditional force mounting coordinated guerrilla raids on coalition targets," said Mr. Smith, who attributed his information to unnamed "U.S. intelligence sources."
Only a relative handful of zealots are required to keep the suicide bombs exploding, and the people who blow themselves up needn't have much military skill. If al-Qaeda in Iraq is running short of these, it is in desperate straits.
It's important to remember that though al-Qaeda (thanks to the suicide bombers) has been responsible for most of the bloodshed in Iraq, it accounts for only a small proportion of the total number of insurgents. Most are ex-Baathists still holding a torch for Saddam Hussein.
But those among the Iraqi insurgents who think they can quit the fight without fear of prosecution by the government, or persecution by Shias and Kurds out for revenge, are exploring means to do so. Iraqi president Jalal Talabani said Monday his security adviser has met with representatives of seven armed groups and is optimistic they will lay down their arms.
Meanwhile, "red on red" violence is increasing. Sunni tribes once supportive of the insurgency have formed the "Anbar Revenge Brigades" to hunt down al-Qaeda operatives in the province.
The Anbar Revenge Brigades were formed in response to the assassination of tribal leaders by al-Qaeda in a futile effort to keep Sunnis from cooperating with the government.
That this heavy-handed intimidation of erstwhile allies has backfired is indicated by the al-Qaeda announcement April 2 that "the Iraqi resistance's high command asked Zarqawi to give up his political role because of several mistakes he made."
Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who served as President Clinton's drug czar and has been sharply critical of the Bush Administration's conduct of the war, recently returned from a trip to Iraq.
He concluded: "The foreign jihadist fighters have been defeated as a strategic and operational threat to creation of an Iraqi government."
This opera ain't over, but the fat lady is warming up.
BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - A British military helicopter crashed and caught fire in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Saturday, police said. Firefighters said they had seen four charred bodies inside the wreckage. The helicopter crashed into a building near the provincial governor's office, but there were no casualties on the ground, police said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, but one policeman at the scene in central Basra told Reuters the aircraft had been fired on. A British military spokesman in Basra said : "We can't confirm anything at this point, but we all agree that an incident has happened."
A large crowd gathered at the scene of the crash and began throwing stones and yelling at British troops who cordoned off the area, witnesses said.
#2
Put a sock on it, Besoeker. I don't want innocent people on the ground killed due to a helo crash.
Criminy, where in the world is your humanity?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/06/2006 12:07 Comments ||
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#3
ABC News
A British military helicopter crashed in Basra on Saturday, and Iraqis hurled stones at British troops and set fire to three armored vehicles that rushed to the scene. Clashes broke out between British troops and Shiite militias, police and witnesses said.
Posted by: ed ||
05/06/2006 12:22 Comments ||
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#4
Put a sock on it, Besoeker. I don't want innocent people on the ground killed due to a helo crash.
Throwing stones at the rescuers, setting rescue vehicles on fire -- that takes them out of the "innocent" category, IMHO. Maybe even out of the "people" category.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/06/2006 13:11 Comments ||
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#5
BAGHDAD, Iraq May 6, 2006 (AP) A British military helicopter crashed in Basra on Saturday, and Iraqis hurled stones at British troops and set fire to three armored vehicles that rushed to the scene. Clashes broke out between British troops and Shiite militias, police and witnesses said.
Police Capt. Mushtaq Khazim said the helicopter was apparently shot down in a residential district. He said the four-member crew was killed, but British officials would say only that there were casualties.
British forces backed by armored vehicles rushed to the area but were met by a hail of stones from the crowd of at least 250 people, who jumped for joy and raised their fists as a plume of thick smoke rose into the air from the crash site.
The crowd set three British armored vehicles on fire, apparently with gasoline bombs and a rocket-propelled grenade, but the soldiers inside escaped unhurt, witnesses said.
British troops shot into the air trying to disperse the crowd, then shooting broke out between the British and Iraqi militiamen, Khazim said. At least four people, including a child, were killed, he said. Two of the victims were adults shot by British troops while driving a car in the area, Khazim said.
The crowd chanted we are all soldiers of al-Sayed, a reference to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an ardent foe of the presence of foreign troops in Iraq
**************************************
salt? she sounds fairly straight up. you decide.
Source: http://fayrouz.blogspot.com/
a Basrah resident wrote Fay an E-mail recently..
Dear Fay,
Here I am writing to you about my dear city. My Basrah.
First of all, you should know that currently there isnt real police in Basrah. We only have the militia.
The British troops have become very weak lately and I dont know why. But, its been a while since the situation has gotten bad.
On 4th of April, the British troops received a very bad blow to them. Maybe more to their ego to be more precise. On that day, the British Embassy (consulate) was celebrating the Queens birthday and it seems that they were hit by a mortar attack during the celebration. Since then, they seem to be going around themselves in endless circles.
In general, I had GREAT EXPECTATIONS in them. I had it in the coalition forces too. But, these were illusions.
You have to know that now in Basrah there is killing between Sunni and Shia like in Baghdad.
Last week, 11 construction workers were killed. They all worked at the same company which is an Iraqi company named Al Fayhaa. Its a very respectable Iraqi company. Those 11 were all Shia and they werent just ordinary workers. Among them were the best engineers in the city. The week after, three doctors were killed. One of them was one of the best doctors in Basrah. During the same week, they killed a university teacher and the list is going on.
One of my co-workers is Sunni. He was very upset the other day because his Shia neighbor of 14 years stopped talking to him just because he is Sunni.
In Basrah we have a lot of Sunni-Shia mixed families. They never felt the impact of the religious intolerance until now.
And Fay, they will turn to us [The Christians] in the near future. I heard rumors that it has already started in Baghdad.
What makes the situation more badly is that most companies and projects stopped functioning here. Companies are closing and projects are starting to stop because everyone is afraid of going to work sites. Even doctors, who are the most dedicated people to their work, are starting to stay home for their own safety.
I went to Baghdad a few weeks ago. I was astonished of the bravery of Baghdadis. We used to be like that in Basra during the Iraq-Iran war; but not any more. In Baghdad, people go out on the streets and shop normally like nothing is happening around. If that isnt bravery, then I dont know what it is.
In Basrah, we can hardly go out to buy simple things without being afraid.
In Baghdad, girls wear pants and a large number of them dont wear a headscarf without anyone saying anything to them. In Basrah, I can hardly walk the street without hearing some nasty remarks. [She doesnt wear a headscarf]
And please I dont like to hear some remarks like , Well, you should change the entire situation yourselves. My answer will be very nasty.
#9
SW - if it took out some of this crowd of screaming assholes - I'm all for it
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/06/2006 16:06 Comments ||
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#10
It tragically shows what happens when you do not deal with the likes of al Sadr directly and with overwhelming force. Tater fills a vacuum of power that occupying forces left. He is a symptom of a bigger problem of the culture and Islam.
Take a look at the mob of 250 screaming a$$holes, as Frank so aptly described, and you will see an orchestrated action. We will not win the WoT by being nice people and reasoning with a$$holes like these and Tater the puppet master. Nice people do not win wars. This is very disturbing.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/06/2006 17:10 Comments ||
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#11
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in
banning.
#14
Been thinking a lot about what Besoerker and Dr. White had to say. I agree with both of them. Before this is all over, a lot more people are going to agree with Bersoerker than Dr. White. War is Hell.
The U.S. military on Thursday revealed parts of a memo attributed to Al Qaeda in Iraq that outlines plans to ignite sectarian war by targeting Shiite Muslims and to shift the battle toward the capital and religiously mixed parts of the country.
The memo, which the military said was seized during a raid last month, ordered followers to "make the struggle entirely between Shiites and the mujahedin," as the militants refer to themselves, and lambasted moderate Sunni groups. It included a call for insurgents to "displace the Shiites and displace their shops and businesses from our areas. Expel those black market sellers of gas, bread or meat or anyone that is suspected of spying against us."
The memo, if authentic, provides some of the strongest evidence to date to support an accusation U.S. officials repeatedly have made that Abu Musab Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, has been deliberately trying to exploit the country's simmering sectarian and ethnic tensions to spark a full-blown civil war.
The authenticity of the memo could not be verified independently, but its language appears to resemble that of Iraqi insurgency material posted on the Internet and distributed on fliers. Moreover, the memo's call to shift the focus of attacks from Americans and toward Shiites appears to reflect the reality on the ground.
U.S. officials sought to gain maximum public relations advantage from the memo and unflattering outtakes from a recently released Zarqawi propaganda video, sharing them with the media.
The footage shows a flustered Zarqawi in running shoes, struggling to get his machine gun to fire. Another shot shows a deputy grabbing a recently fired machine gun and apparently scalding his hand on the hot muzzle.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for U.S.-led forces in Iraq, said Zarqawi's bloopers and the strategy memo were discovered in a raid on an alleged hide-out in Yousifiya, south of the capital. U.S. military planners say the village is being used as a staging ground for stepped-up insurgent operations in Baghdad.
U.S. officials acknowledge that Zarqawi's foreign fighters make up only a small part of the mainly Sunni Arab insurgency, but say their attempts to start a civil war represent the greatest threat to Iraq's stability.
The memo describes the militants' sectarian agenda for the next six months in stark detail: "Reduce attacks on Sunni areas as much as possible. So we can be dedicated to cleansing them of spies and [Shiites] quietly."
The memo also seems to signal a strategic shift away from U.S. targets.
"The priority in Baghdad will be the Shiites, the [Iraqi army] and the rest of the related forces there," it says.
In a section titled "Important Comments and Notes for Working in Baghdad," the memo also calls on militants to strike frequently at police and army checkpoints. "Do that until it becomes a rule in their psyches that the one who's standing in the street, will die," the memo says. In his propaganda video, Zarqawi also threatened to attack Sunnis who joined the security forces.
But the memo, which does not include a date or author, also criticizes unidentified insurgent leaders for seeking short-term media gains rather than creating a viable organization.
"It is known by the majority of the mujahedin in Baghdad that their leadership is not following a clear vision and a tight plan," says the memo, blaming recent "strategic losses" on emirs, or top leaders.
"The emirs are demanding continuous daily work with the greatest possible momentum in order to exhaust the enemy, although the mujahedin in fact are the ones who are exhausted," the memo says.
The release of the Zarqawi outtakes afforded the U.S. military an opportunity to mock the tough-guy image the militant leader tried to project in a 34-minute propaganda video posted on the Internet and aired on Arab-language television last week.
"What you saw on the Internet is what he wanted the world to see: 'Look at me, I'm a capable leader of a capable organization,' " Lynch, the U.S. spokesman, said at his weekly media briefing.
"Here's Zarqawi the ultimate warrior trying to shoot off his machine gun. It's supposed to be automatic fire, and he's shooting single shots," Lynch said. "It's just a matter of time before we take him out."
Few Iraqi Sunnis support Zarqawi, even those sympathetic to the nationalist elements of the insurgency. "The actions of Zarqawi are twisting the image of the true resistance," said Sara Ibrahim, 21, a Sunni university student. "His actions are inciting hate. He is a person with no religion or principle."
Lynch said 31 suspected foreign militants loyal to Zarqawi had been killed since April 8 in five raids, including the one in Yousifiya. U.S. officials said the military had killed eight suspected insurgents Thursday in a gun battle in central Ramadi, west of the capital.
At least nine Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday in bombings and shootings across the capital.
A suicide bomber killed at least eight people and injured 44 Thursday morning outside a courthouse in northern Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. Iraq's criminal court convicted 12 suspected insurgents during the week of April 19, sentencing three to life in prison.
In south-central Baghdad, two U.S. soldiers died in a roadside bombing shortly before noon Thursday. The military did not disclose the exact location of the incident, but a Times employee witnessed a huge explosion on the double-decked highway connecting southern and western Baghdad.
The explosion destroyed an armored U.S. military vehicle, scattering rubber and metal on the highway. Soldiers in nearby vehicles shouted and took up defensive positions as casualties were evacuated by helicopters. Residents of the middle-class Sunni Arab neighborhood nearby praised the attack and criticized police officers for helping secure the scene.
A ranking Defense Ministry official was gunned down Thursday morning on his way to work in western Baghdad.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/06/2006 05:44 ||
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A day after the release of a memo attributed to Al Qaeda in Iraq that described plans for a violent campaign to displace Shiite Muslims from many parts of the country, one of the sect's most influential religious leaders used his Friday sermon to urge the faithful to hold their ground.
"I demand first the government and second the brothers to keep their places," said Sheik Jalaluddin Saghir, leader of the capital's largest and most influential Shiite house of worship, the Bratha Mosque.
"We should not let the terrorists do that," Saghir said, referring to a strategy memo that the U.S. military said it had found at an Al Qaeda in Iraq hide-out in Yousifiya, south of Baghdad. "We should help families in finding a way to stay in their places."
Although the memo could not be independently authenticated, it echoed earlier instructions attributed to insurgent leaders, who are fighting coalition forces and trying to prevent the establishment of a stable central government.
The memo called on insurgents to "displace the Shiites and displace their shops and businesses from our areas."
The memo said Baghdad should be an area of focus for the attacks. It told insurgents to cast a broad net, urging the expulsion of "black market sellers of gas, bread or meat" and the "cleansing" of areas of "any person suspected of spying against us."
The outspoken Saghir, a member of parliament who distributes DVDs of his Friday sermons, blamed Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Zarqawi for such extreme sentiments. He called the insurgent leader "an exceptional criminal who hurts all Iraqis."
His words came a day after the U.S. military attempted to discredit Zarqawi by showing footage of him apparently struggling to fire a machine gun and looking less than gallant in a dark sweatsuit and white running shoes.
Centuries-old tensions between Shiites and Sunnis have been at the root of much of the violence that has ripped apart Iraq since the U.S.-led military coalition toppled dictator Saddam Hussein three years ago.
Iraqis have endured the bulk of the violence, but American forces have suffered at least 2,414 deaths since the invasion in March 2003, according to an Associated Press tally. The total includes three U.S. soldiers killed Friday when a roadside bomb ripped into their armored vehicle south of Baghdad.
It was the second such deadly attack on U.S. forces in as many days; a bomb set off Thursday in Baghdad killed two soldiers.
The Friday bombing occurred in the late morning along the highway connecting Baghdad with Babil province, about 60 miles to the south. Iraqi security forces said at least two Americans were injured in the Humvee, which caught fire after the explosion.
Elsewhere, American troops came under attack on the outskirts of Fallouja and in Samarra. Returning fire, they killed at least five Iraqis and injured several others, Iraqi security officials said.
As violence appeared to rise, Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad reported receiving 13 bodies. Six were those of shop owners in the western part of the city, three of them brothers, who were shot and their businesses burned. Two others killed were a father and son, who had been kidnapped. At least three others, from the Dora neighborhood in south Baghdad, showed signs of torture.
Shiite militias and loyalists of Hussein's Sunni-dominated Baath Party have been blamed for much of the violence, but one Iraqi leader attempted to spread the blame even more widely.
Interim Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, who has been accused of allowing security forces under his command to carry out sectarian attacks, suggested that private security workers operating outside the control of the government might be at the root of the attacks.
Speaking on Al Arabiya television late Thursday, Jabr said the security companies and their estimated 200,000 employees were an unchecked source of firepower in a nation bristling with antagonism and weapons.
"These forces are outside the control of the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense," Jabr said, adding that he hoped to bring such companies to heel. He called "eventually for the disappearance of such companies."
At other mosques Friday, meanwhile, religious leaders from both sides of the Shiite-Sunni divide called for an end to retaliation killings.
Imam Sadruddin Qubanchi, who led prayers at the Imam Ali Mosque in the city of Najaf, suggested that militias had to cease their activities.
"No country can be unified and strong when there are in it a number of militias struggling for influence," said Qubanchi, who is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the top Shiite religious leader in the country.
He also opposed a solution, proposed this week by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), to divide Iraq into autonomous Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish homelands. "The Iraqi will, the constitution and the government are against fragmentation," Qubanchi said.
At Abu Hanifa, a well-known Sunni mosque in Baghdad, Sheik Ali Zand urged worshipers to "stay away from disarray and keep our wisdom." He called the continued shootings "an act lacking wisdom, because the loss from such an act may be a human soul that God will question you about."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/06/2006 05:33 ||
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Armed men have kidnapped six engineers working for Iraq's state-owned Northern Oil Company, police said. The six were returning to the oil city of Kirkuk, 250km north of Baghdad, from a meeting at the Baiji refinery, Iraq's biggest, when they were stopped about 30km from Kirkuk, on Friday. No further details were available.
Security problems in the Kirkuk area, including frequent attacks on pipelines, have hindered Iraq's ability to exploit the vast potential of the northern oilfields. Nearly all of Iraq's oil exports - averaging below two million barrels a day - have come from the southern fields around Basra.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2006 00:00 ||
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Five Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a training camp used by an armed resistance group in the Gaza Strip, further dampening peace prospects. The Israeli military said the strike on Friday targeted a camp used by the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an umbrella group of activists often blamed for firing makeshift rockets into Israel. "There was an aerial attack on a training compound of the PRC while terrorists were training there," an Israeli military spokeswoman said.
The air strike scattered body parts and left pools of blood in a field just metres away from the home of Moumtaz Dourghmush, the top commander in the PRC. Dourghmush was not at the scene, but a brother and three cousins were among the dead, hospital officials said. Abu Mujahid, an official with the group, said at least three missiles landed on the field as members were training. "God willing, this is not going to stop our heroic battle against the Zionists, and the blood is the fuel of our resistance and our reprisal is coming soon," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2006 00:00 ||
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A video with instructions on assembling a bomb found during a raid on the hideout of one of Asia's most wanted militants suggested terror threats are still real in the country, an Indonesian minister said.
Police found the bomb-making guide on a laptop seized from a house in Central Java during last week's raid in which two militants were killed, but police failed to catch Noordin Top, Deputy police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam told said.
Top is wanted for several bombing attacks in the region and is seen as a key member of the militant Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a regional wing of al-Qaeda.
Chief security minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto told reporters the video and the recent discovery of a backpack with crude bombs suggested militants were still active and have the ability to assemble bomb despite the death of chief bomb maker Azahari.
Azahari often travelled with Top, according to intelligence officials. He was killed during a shootout in the East Java town of Malang last year.
The backpack bombs found in another Central Java town were similar to the ones used in the bombings of cafes in the resort island of Bali last year.
"The discovery of the bombs indicates that terror cells still have the capability to assemble their own bombs even though the expert died in Malang," Sutjipto told reporters.
"This has proven that terror threats are real and active."
JI is blamed for the October 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and a series of other attacks.
Aside from the initial Bali bombings, there have been deadly strikes attributed to Islamic militants against a luxury hotel in Jakarta in 2003, outside the Australian embassy in the capital in 2004, and at restaurants in Bali in 2005.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/06/2006 05:13 ||
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#2
security will be worse now Iran has promised $2 billion in aid to Indo: that is to build an oil refinery on Java (the epicentre of the aggressive Islamofascist Indo plague) near where a nuke reactor is to be built.
Plus a big volcano on Java is rumbling. With any luck it will explode a la krakatoa and wipe the island with all its inhabitants from the face of the earth.
ASIA'S most wanted terrorist, Noordin Mohammed Top, has built a network of support across the region that is likely to survive even if he is captured.
Noordin is believed to have been instrumental in the bombing attacks on the Marriott Hotel and the Australian embassy in Jakarta and the second Bali bombings last October.
He is a longstanding member of the Jemaah Islamiah Islamic terrorist group and an admirer of al-Qaeda but has developed his own terrorist network, using links to schools, businesses and families to find new bombers and couriers to run his operations, according to a report by the International Crisis Group, an independent non-profit organisation.
The report says he has also sourced advice, materials and radical legitimacy from some of the JI members in prison for earlier bombings, including Mukhlas and Imam Samudra, two of the main proponents of the first Bali attacks in 2002.
His capacity to evade arrest and fashion new terrorist cells while on the run has been remarkable, according to the report's authors, Sidney Jones and Robert Temper.
Last week Noordin once again escaped an Indonesian police raid in which two of his top aides were killed.
The report says the raid was a "significant blow" for Noordin, but it cautions that even if he is finally killed or captured, his network will continue. "For four years, Noordin has tapped into jihadist networks to build a following of diehard loyalists, and those same networks may be available to others," it says.
Noordin is a long-time adherent of Jemaah Islamiah but he has split from its mainstream leadership and set his own destructive path.
He is regarded as a "deviant" by other JI members, according to the report. But Noordin sees himself as the head of JI's military wing, even though he answers to no one and many of his recruits come from outside JI.
He has recruited throughout Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, a development that is making the work of counter-terrorism officers more difficult.
But the report notes that since the second Bali bombings, there is evidence that he is running out of financial support, relying on bank robberies for funds.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/06/2006 05:07 ||
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Indonesia's most-wanted terrorist suspect Noordin Mohammed Top has been looking beyond his traditional network for experienced jihadists, and operating under his own orders to carry out deadly attacks against Western targets, a report said Friday.
Hemmed in by a massive police hunt and isolated by his violent tactics from moderate members of his group - the regional terrorist Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) - Noordin has turned to militant Indonesian Islamic groups and others to build a "following committed to al-Qaeda style attacks," the report said.
"Many JI members reportedly see the group he has cobbled together - he grandly calls it al-Qaeda for the Malay Archipelago - as a deviant splinter that has done great harm to the organisation they joined in the mid-1990s," wrote the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG).
As a result, the radical militant has had to build a group of like-minded individuals with various backgrounds who answer only to Noordin, who allegedly "justifies his actions by citing jihadist doctrine that under emergency conditions a group of two or three or even a single individual can take on the enemy without instructions from an imam."
The ICG report points to evidence from a September 2004 embassy bombing, which left 11 dead, including the suicide bomber, showing Noordin used a blend of JI members, alumni of militant Islamic schools and Darul Islam, an Indonesian Islamic militant group which sent members to Sulawesi and Maluku provinces to wage jihad after violence erupted in 1999.
After the embassy bombing, Noordin also used couriers to contact the leader of a different Darul Islam faction with experience in the Philippines, and a former leader of the Islamic charity KOMPAK in Ambon, the provincial capital of Maluku, according to the report.
"For four years Noordin has tapped into jihadist networks to build a following of diehard loyalists," the ICG said. "Jemaah Islamiyah, the region's largest jihadist organisation, continues to provide the hard core of that following."
"But beginning in 2004, Noordin began reaching out to young men from other organisations and some with no previous organisational affiliation," it added.
The report praised the work of Indonesian authorities in chasing down Noordin, who was almost captured last Saturday in a police raid that left two members of his inner circle dead.
Noordin has narrowly escaped arrest on several other occassions, and his partner, the notorious bomb-maker Azahari bin Husin, was killed in November during a dramatic police raid on his hideout in East Java.
But although Saturday's raid and a string of other arrests may have left the most-wanted militant short of funds, materials and experienced fighters, his network remains and so does the threat, the report said.
"The Indonesian police are closing in on Noordin Mohammed Top, South-East Asia's most-wanted terrorist," the ICG said. "If and when they capture Noordin, they will have put the person most determined to attack Western targets out of commission.
"But the problem of Noordin's support structure will still have to be tackled," it adds. "The networks he drew on will survive as a potential source of recruits for future operations."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/06/2006 05:06 ||
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Radical Islamic terrorist Noordin Top was "infatuated" with al-Qaeda and has modelled himself on its leaders as he plots more attacks in Asia, a report has said.
Noordin is blamed in part for both the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings as well as the 2004 attack on Australia's Jakarta embassy.
An analysis by the International Crisis Group said he was now trying to extend his reach beyond Jemaah Islamiah (JI) to recruit supporters from other extremist Islamic groups.
By doing so he has put himself beyond the reach of JI's central command and some wary Islamic religious leaders.
"He reportedly justifies his actions on the grounds that under emergency conditions - for example if surrounded by the enemy - a small group or even a single individual can take on the enemy without instructions from its imam," the report said.
"In this way, he may see himself as leading the 'real' JI, as opposed to the do-nothings who object to the bombings."
Malaysian-born Noordin, nicknamed the "moneyman", is one of Asia's most wanted men.
He has narrowly escaped a series of police raids, including a fierce gunbattle in which his chief bombmaker and most trusted confidant Azahari Husin was killed.
Two other top aides, including his chief of staff Jabir, were shot dead by crack police during a dawn raid on a hideout near the central Java town of Wonosobo on April 29.
The ICG report on the networks of support which were helping Noordin evade his hunters and continue bombings said the 38-year-old had begun to compare himself with senior al-Qaeda terrorists, naming his group after the feared terror network.
"The extent of his actual communication with al-Qaeda is not clear but he certainly seems to have been infatuated with it," the report said.
"As of mid-2004, he had taken on the nom-de-guerre of `Aiman', almost certainly after the al-Qaeda Number Two Aiman Zawaheri".
He had also begun to imitate the style of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is the architect of the anti-US insurgency in Iraq and responsible for the grisly beheadings of western hostages.
"Noordin's appearance on a videotape found in November 2005, complete with balaclava covering his face, seemed to be an effort to replicate the videos made by Zarqawi," ICG said.
But as police arrests decimated his support networks, Noordin had begun to turn with mixed success to other Islamic militant groups in the lawless southern Philippines and parts of conflict-torn Sulawesi and Ambon.
He had been rebuffed by Akram, the commander of Indonesia's longtime Darul Islam insurgency, as well as Abdullah Sunata, who heads the violent Kompak group in religiously-divided Sulawesi.
But when both were arrested in mid-2005, Noordin had recruited some of their followers.
The Wonosobo raid and Jabir's death would be a severe blow for Noordin and police were undoubtedly closing in on the man who had managed to evade an intense four-year manhunt, ICG said.
But the networks of supporters he had recruited and trained would still pose a threat.
And Noordin's ambition to create at Islamic super-state had begun to grow beyond Indonesia to other parts of Asia, especially in the Malaysian-ruled Sabah in Borneo, Muslim southern Thailand and in the Philippines.
"Noordin's ambitions are too big to stay focused on Indonesia but the Indonesian police are likely to get him first," the report said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/06/2006 05:05 ||
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JAKARTA: One of Asias most wanted Islamic militants has built his own force to carry out attacks in and around Indonesia, independent of the radical group he belongs to, the International Crisis Group said on Friday. The ICG also said the fugitive, Noordin Top, once orchestrated a plan to kidnap Westerners and carry out a bomb attack at a synagogue in the Indonesian city of Surabaya, but the plan was abandoned because police were closing in on him.
Malaysian-born Top, originally a key member of the Jemaah Islamiah group blamed for bombing attacks in southeast Asia, has been operating independently to recruit new bombmakers and would-be suicide bombers, the ICG report said. Jemaah Islamiah has links with the Al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden. Top set up his own group because some key members within Jemaah Islamiah disapproved conducting more bomb attacks in the region, the ICG said. Some attacks blamed on the groups have killed mainly Muslims and Indonesians, despite being aimed at targets considered Western.
Although Tops splintered group is still in the formative stages and short on funds, his actions may inspire others in the region, said the well-respected ICG. Since Noordin operates on the principle that going it alone with a small group is a necessary response to the political situation, he may be encouraging like-minded groups. Police said earlier this year they were investigating possible links between a militant network set up by Top called Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad or Organisation for the Basis of Jihad with Al Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2006 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A U.S.-led coalition military transport helicopter crashed while conducting combat operations in eastern Afghanistan, killing all 10 soldiers on board, a U.S. military spokeswoman said Saturday.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Two Italian soldiers were killed and four wounded by a roadside bomb that exploded while they were on patrol south of Kabul on Friday, a military spokesman said. Two military vehicles were patrolling together when one of them was hit, said Maj. Luke Knittig, a Kabul-based spokesman for NATOs International Security Assistance Force. The soldiers that were attacked in this case were exercising duties to assist with security, he said. The very knowledge that there are security threats in the Kabul area is why they were out.
In a last minute commitment to the peace process, just as proceedings were about to close, a second Sudanese rebel group 
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) shot dead two alleged snatchers at Mohammadpur in the capital yesterday.
A man will appear in court charged with soliciting murder, in connection with February's Muslim cartoon protests. 
Armed men have kidnapped six engineers working for Iraq's state-owned Northern Oil Company, police said. The six were returning to the oil city of Kirkuk, 250km north of Baghdad, from a meeting at the Baiji refinery, Iraq's biggest, when they were stopped about 30km from Kirkuk, on Friday. No further details were available.
Five Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a training camp used by an armed resistance group in the Gaza Strip, further dampening peace prospects. The Israeli military said the strike on Friday targeted a camp used by the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an umbrella group of activists often blamed for firing makeshift rockets into Israel. "There was an aerial attack on a training compound of the PRC while terrorists were training there," an Israeli military spokeswoman said.
JAKARTA: One of Asias most wanted Islamic militants has built his own force to carry out attacks in and around Indonesia, independent of the radical group he belongs to, the 
