Fugitive Taleban leader Mullah Omar has dismissed a proposal to hold cross border tribal councils as a "trap", in a message attributed to him.
"No Muslim will participate in something... created by the aggressors and puppets," he said.
The Pakistan and Afghan governments have discussed holding a cross-border council to end Taleban violence.
Mullah Omar's message, released to a number of news agencies, urged the Taleban never to accept defeat.
Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of allowing the Taleban to operate from its soil.
Pakistan claims it is doing all it can to stop militant activity across the border.
The idea of holding a tribal councils - or jirgas - among Pashtuns living on either side of the Pakistan-Afghan border was discussed in Kabul in December during a visit by Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri.
But there have been no signs of progress towards convening such councils since then.
In his message released ahead of the Eid al-Adha religious festival, Mullah Omar said: "The enemy will have to quit the region with humiliation and disgrace.
"Afghans have a history of expelling their enemies as no enemy and invader has quit Afghanistan willingly."
On Thursday evening - before the message was released - Nato and Afghan forces in eastern Khost province killed up to 10 militants after an attack on a police post, Afghan police said.
Khost province's police commander Mohammad Ayub told the Associated Press news agency that Nato forces had called in a helicopter to provide assistance...
#1
If I'm reading that story correctly, Pakistan is almost being proactive (by Pakistani standards) in addressing the border problem. This surprises me, which makes me assume that Pakistan knows that this will accomplish nothing.
The only chance we have to hammering Osama and Omar is to operate in Wazoo. Anything short of allowing this is empty gestures by Pakistan. I think this is a PR stunt.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/31/2006 20:32 Comments ||
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#2
If I'm reading that story correctly, Pakistan is almost being proactive (by Pakistani standards) in addressing the border problem. This surprises me, which makes me assume that Pakistan knows that this will accomplish nothing.
The only chance we have to hammering Osama and Omar is to operate in Wazoo. Anything short of allowing this is empty gestures by Pakistan. I think this is a PR stunt.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/31/2006 20:32 Comments ||
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#3
Should I post that again? Oops.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/31/2006 20:33 Comments ||
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Fighting erupted Sunday on the outskirts of the last remaining stronghold of Somalia's militant Islamic movement, as thousands of residents streamed from the area ahead of the feared battle with Ethiopian-backed government troops. Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said the militants in the coastal city of Kismayo were sheltering three men wanted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 250 people. "If we capture them alive we will hand them over to the United States," Gedi said.
The fighting broke out in Helashid, 11 miles northwest of the southern town of Jilib, the gateway to Kismayo, where an estimated 3,000 hardcore fighters were preparing for a bloody showdown. "I can hear artillery and heavy weapons being fired outside of town," said Abdi Malik, a charity worker in Jilib, told The Associated Press by telephone. Ethiopian MiG fighter jets were also buzzing Kismayo, an AP reporter said. Islamic leaders vowed to make a stand against Ethiopia, which has one of the largest armies in Africa, or begin an Iraq-style guerrilla war. "My fighters will defeat the Ethiopians forces," Sheik Ahmed Mohamed Islan, the head of the Islamic movement in the Kismayo region told The Associated Press. "Even if we are defeated we will start an insurgency. We will kill every Somali that supports the government and Ethiopians." Mohamed Suldan Ali, a resident of Jilib, said the Islamic forces had littered the approach to the town with remote-controlled land mines. Another resident said the fighters had destroyed three approach bridges to the town. Up to 2,000 people fled, carrying what they could. "I don't know where to go we are terrified because we can hear the fighting," said Howo Nor, a mother of three. Many were headed for the Kenyan border.
Kenya better check for simple if heavily-armed refugees.
Gedi said he spoke Sunday to the U.S. ambassador in Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, about sealing the Kenyan border with Somalia to prevent the three al-Qaida suspects Comorian Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, a Sudanese from fleeing."We would like to capture or kill these guys at any cost," Gedi told the AP. "They are the root of the problem."
#2
Better to just CLOSE the border. I hope the TFG/Ethios have sent a column in the hinterlands to set-up at the border as the ANVIL, so that when the muzzies get HAMMERed out of Kismayo, they get crushed. Heh.
I was just up on Google Earth looking over the area.
#6
"We'll take the lips as a receipt, thanks. Here's yer reward. You can keep the rest."
"Thank you Mr. CIA man!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/31/2006 18:18 Comments ||
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#7
Did we mention the reward? $5 million will build a swinging bachelor pad in Addis Ababa.
Posted by: ed ||
12/31/2006 18:27 Comments ||
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#8
ed: Did we mention the reward? $5 million will build a swinging bachelor pad in Addis Ababa.
Hell, $5m will get you a green card and a swinging bachelor pad in NYC, not to mention a six figure annual income off clipping Treasury coupons for the rest of your life.
Somalias prime minister has asked clan elders in Mogadishu to surrender Al-Qaeda suspects who are believed to be sheltering in the city after his forces, with Ethiopian military support, drove out Islamic militias which controlled the capital.
Washington has accused the Union of Islamic Courts, which threatened to overrun the government, of trying to turn the country into a safe haven for terrorists and demanded the handover of three suspects who it believes were behind the bombing of its embassies in east Africa.
Ali Mohamed Gedi, whose government has so far had little support in the capital, has been locked in negotiations with tribal leaders about how to take control. A source close to the government said that the prime minister had asked the elders to take over administration of the city in return for information about three men suspected of masterminding attacks on American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
The message they forwarded was that there are certain people wanted by the international community and by us and if you can tell us their whereabouts we would appreciate it, and that would be a sign of collaboration, he said.
The request was made in a private meeting with leaders of the Habar Gidir clan. Their Ayr sub-clan is believed to be sheltering Fazul Abdullah Mohamed, from the Comoros Islands, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan, and Abu Taha al-Sudan, from Sudan.
The men were named in June by Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, as the three most wanted terrorist suspects America was seeking in connection with simultaneous car bombs at the US embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania, which killed 257 people in 1998. Washington believes the same cell was behind an attack four years later on a hotel near the Kenyan coastal resort of Mombasa, which left 13 people dead, and an unsuccessful attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner.
After the attack, the men slipped away through Kenyas island archipelago to Somalias lawless capital. With no immigration department, police force or central government since 1991, they could readily disappear into Mogadishus warren of bullet-riddled buildings. The anarchic capital, one of the most dangerous places on earth, was off-limits to foreign security agents.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/31/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The results of the search ought to be disappeared dead bodies, not "arrested" media hero terrorists that the MSM can proclaim innocent along with their islamist commrads.
Ethiopian and Somali troops are reported to be heading south towards the stronghold of Islamist fighters driven from the capital on Thursday. Ethiopian tanks are advancing to the port city of Kismayo, 500km (300 miles) south of Mogadishu. A senior figure in the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) has vowed that the group is still alive and ready to fight.
The head of Somalia's transitional government has met clan leaders to discuss how to stabilise the capital. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, who has not yet entered Mogadishu, held the talks in the nearby town of Afgoye. Some are opposed to Ethiopia's role in Somalia and thousands have protested in Mogadishu as Ethiopian soldiers secured the city's port and airport.
The Ethiopian forces, who back Somali's transitional government, are now reported to be closing in on an estimated 3,000 Islamist fighters in Kismayo. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed of the UIC urged thousands of residents gathered in Kismayo stadium to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid to defend their country. "Our country is under occupation so we have decided to fight. We are gearing up to kick these occupiers out of our country."
Residents of Kismayo were reported to have seen Ethiopian fighter jets overhead on Friday and Saturday, Reuters reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
cut off the "escape to the sea". please
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/31/2006 8:27 Comments ||
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MODS - I'm looking at the source doc, the PDF, and the Boston Butt Probe story... I do not see the second LNG breach. In other words, I think this is a 6 month old story that caused DOT to update procedures - and send out a bulletin regards lessons learned. If no one else sees the second breach, then delete, I guess. i.e. It's not news - unless the warning to LNG operators is "the news".
December 28, 2006 Investigation revealed that the intruders had cut through the outer and inner perimeter fences and through the locked gate and gained access to the storage tank several days before the breach was discovered. A microwave intrusion system documented the intrusions on the computer monitoring system, which should have alerted operator personnel to the intrusions.
Operator personnel did not respond.
In the days following, personnel conducted several routine visual inspections of the area without noting the cuts in the fences. Although there was also video surveillance of the perimeter, personnel did not review the tape until they investigated the breach.
State authorities responded quickly to examine security at other LNG facilities in the state. These authorities inspected operator practices and procedures to ensure personnel and systems respond correctly during a security breach. August 23, 2006: LNG Facility Break-in
#1
.com, dittos on the article, it dawned on me after I posted it, most likely it's the after action paper work generated from the New England LNG breach.
and thanks also btw for all the good work, essays and comments you've contributed. And I appreciate the article editing too as it makes our work product better and that means it makes Rantburg better. Goes without saying that extends to all the mods and regulars who expect high standards here at Rantburg.
Thats my resolution for 2007, raise the bar and a little less horseplay.
#2
So two guys climbed a fence and got up on top of a tank to admire the view? Why did the Globe think it was news? Or were they criticiing the operator?
Yeah, that's it. The bad, bad utiloity should've caught those guys five feet inside the fence and escorted them off the property.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/31/2006 7:03 Comments ||
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#3
Raise the bar yes, spellin and grammer is no starter.
Militants struck on Saturday in Pampore town on the Srinagar-Jammu highway, killing a police officer and a civilian. Three others were injured. Suspected militants fired upon Station House Officer Pampore Manzoor Ahmad when he was on patrol duty in the market. Witnesses said that one of them was wearing ladies' underwear disguised as a woman approached him and opened indiscriminate fire. Manzoor, who was trying to disperse a crowd that had gathered to buy sheep for Eid sacrifice, and four others were injured.
The SHO was rushed to hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries on the way. The civilian victim was identified as Jan Mohammad. Two other civilians and a policeman were admitted to a hospital in Srinagar. The militants managed to escape.
Security forces have cordoned off the area to flush out the militants. While the locals alleged that the civilians were injured in retaliatory firing, police denied this. Deputy Inspector General of Police, South Kashmir range, Hemant Kumar Lohia said that police observed maximum restraint and fired only in the air. The civilians were injured by firing by militants, he said. "If police had opened fire, many civilian would have been killed because there was a big crowd," Mr. Lohia told The Hindu . Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group based in Pakistan Administered Kashmir, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to a Srinagar-based news agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/2006 00:00 ||
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AL-QAEDA'S deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri has called on insurgents in Iraq to unite, and urged Palestinian Islamists not to co-operate with the Palestinian Authority, according to an audiotape posted on the internet today.
"O mujahideen brothers in Palestine ... the traitor secularists cannot be your brothers, do not give them legitimacy or take part in their assemblies which are opposed to Islamic principles," said the speaker on the tape, who sounded like Zawahri.
"How can (Palestinian President) Mahmoud Abbas ... or (his aide) Mohammed Dahlan be our brothers when they have grown fat on the Jews' bribes and the Americans' gifts," the speaker said.
"I send congratulations to the leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, the mujahid sheikh Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, and all the brave jihadi groups ... invite them to unite," the speaker said.
The authenticity of the tape could not be verified, but it was posted on websites used by al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups in Iraq. It was issued by al-Qaeda's media arm al-Sahab.
Baghdadi heads the so-called Islamic state announced by al-Qaeda and several other Sunni militant groups in Iraq in October. A number of insurgent groups have not joined it.
Zawahri has often criticised the Islamist Hamas movement for taking part in elections, saying it would eventually lead to the recognition of Israel.
Palestinian officials rejected his latest comments as interference.
"Zawahri's comments are a gift to the Zionist occupation ... We call on Zawahri not to intervene in Palestinian internal affairs," said Abu Qusai, spokesman of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Abbas's Fatah movement.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: "We think differently from the way Zawahri does. We adopt the moderate Islamic attitude. We respect the official regime and we believe in dialogue as the only way to settle differences."
The speaker also hailed any Muslim woman insisting on wearing the Islamic veil despite pressures in some Western countries as a "soldier in the battle of Islam against the Zionist-Crusader attack".
In a video issued earlier this in December, Zawahri vowed that al-Qaeda would continue to target the US and other Western countries as long as Muslims were under attack.
#3
"O mujahideen brothers in Palestine ... the traitor secularists cannot be your brothers, do not give them legitimacy or take part in their assemblies which are opposed to Islamic principles"
In other words - yadda, yadda, yadda....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/31/2006 23:51 Comments ||
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Lone Ranger, Our Man in Bangkok reports:
Well, starting as the sun went down today, a coordinated series of bombings kicked off here in Bangkok, where I live. I've heard specifics about explosions at at least seven locations - and at least five fatalities.
All bombs have thus far gone off in stationary locations (not on public transport), and appear to be of size to be hand-carried. Initial reports suggest military type explosives (grenades & similar).
Having lived here in Bangkok for seven years, and closely watched the Muslim insurgency progress in Southern Thailand, I am personally quite certain that this bombing campaign is not related to the problems in Southern Thailand - nor to the global Islamic terrorist pestilence.
Nevertheless, things that go *boom* go on page one.
My first guess is that the violence tonight is the work of disaffected malcontents from the Taksin government that was unseated in a military coup in September 2006.
If that proves to not be the case, I will then guess that the attacks are the work of the present interim Thai government, seeking to create an excuse to either crack down on the disaffected malcontents from the previous government, or to crack down on the Muslims in the South. Muslim insurgents are a very distant third possibilty.
Toxin deadenders or the present gov't bombing its own citizens. That must make you fell all warm n' fuzzy...
My assignment of probabilities:
85% that malcontented Taksin remnants are responsible
12% that current government has orchestrated this, as part of a "false flag" campaign
2% that some other outside influence is responsible
1% that Muslim minsrgents from the far south of Thailand are responsible
It looks to be a long night in Bangkok, and a totally disrupted holiday evening for millions of Bangkokians.
Thanks for the report and the analysis, LR. Happy New Year?
#1
Origami for Peace to be fired up again in the New Year?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/31/2006 10:36 Comments ||
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#2
As a rule of thumb, bomb size and intent are big indicators of who planted them. If they were small and planted in garbage cans away from crowds, they are probably intended just as noisemakers and disrupters, probably put there by agents provocateurs.
If they are built to kill lots of people and are large size, they are terrorists.
Police investigating six bomb explosions in the Thai capital, Bangkok, have arrested a man, according to Sky sources. It is believed he was carrying an explosive device when he was picked up.
Two people were killed and at least 20 others injured in the series of blasts. They all took place within an hour of each other. One bomb was planted under a seat at a bus stop outside a shopping mall. Another went off near a police booth. A third was placed in a trash can at a market in the port district and wounded five, including a 10-year-old child.
#5
Hearing reports of another device going off approx. 20 mins ago and that a foreigner was seriously injured. Location was a high end shopping mall, Gaysorn Plaza, located in central BKK. Local time is now 0040.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
12/31/2006 12:38 Comments ||
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#6
mysterious beturbanned pranksters?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/31/2006 12:57 Comments ||
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At least six explosions took place in and around Bangkok on Sunday evening, causing at least 17 injuries, Thai police said, and reportedly as many as three deaths. A government spokesman confirmed a total of six explosions in the Thai capital, three of which destroyed police boxes. The bomb or grenade explosions occurred almost simultaneously at around 6 p.m. at near the Victory Monument monorail station, at the Khlong Toey wet market, in the Saphan Khwai area, at the Season Square shopping mall, in the suburb of Khae Lai and along Sukhumvit Road in northeast Bangkok.
The explosion in the Victory Monument area, where most of the injuries occurred, took place at a bus stop near an escalator linking to the Sky Train monorail station, police said. They said the explosive device was placed in a trash can.
The Nation newspaper counted a total of seven explosions and said two people were killed and 20 injured in the Victory Monument explosion, while one person was dead at the Big C supermarket in Saphan Khwai where a witness saw a man drop a grenade from a pedestrian bridge there. The report could not be independently confirmed.
At the massive Season Square shopping mall, in the east end of Bangkok, a loud explosion went off in a motorcycle parking area, injuring one person, police said.
The Nation reported that a police box was hit in an explosion near the Khae Rai intersection in Nonthaburi Province, just north of Bangkok, but there were no injuries, while yet another bomb went off in the compound of the Tesco Lotus Supermarket in the Prachachuen area of Bangkok.
From UPI New Year celebrations were muted in Bangkok where several bombs exploded in the waning hours of 2006, killing three people and injuring at least 30.
Local media reported six simultaneous explosions around 8 p.m. local time, while police sources put the number of blasts at 15, Xinhua said. Among the sites targeted were a large shopping mall, a Chinese shrine, a supermarket, a pedestrian bridge and a bus station near Victory Monument.
Soldiers were deployed throughout the city as official celebrations and parties were canceled and department stores in downtown Bangkok -- usually open until midnight -- closed their doors early, Xinhua said.
And from the Associated Press Just after midnight, two more bombs went off near Central World Plaza, the sprawling mall in downtown Bangkok where the largest public festivities were to take place, the iTV television network reported. Eight people were injured in the later blasts, iTV reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings.
Police and soldiers fanned out across Bangkok to guard entertainment venues and important sites. Roadblocks went up in some places. Bomb attacks are rare in the Thai capital. Several small bombs exploded during the recent political turmoil but they were apparently set to create unrest rather than cause casualties.
Bangkok's Mayor Apirak Kosayothin canceled the two major public New Year's Eve countdown celebrations and other smaller ones. "Due to several bomb explosions in Bangkok and for the sake of peace and security, I would ask all of you to return to your homes now," Apirak told some 5,000 revelers at the Central World Plaza, hours before the second set of bombs went off. The crowd began to disperse calmly.
Major public celebrations were also canceled in the northern city of Chiang Mai. "It is not worth risking," said Maj. Gen. Bandop Sukhonthaman, the provincial police chief. But festivities continued in some areas of Bangkok, including the city's most famous red light district, Patpong Road, where hundreds of foreign tourists carried on celebrating. And at midnight, fireworks lit up the sky in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai, with many residents still gathered in the streets of both cities.
Following the initial spate of bombings, police said two people died of their injuries at hospitals and Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkhla said that 26 people were injured, including 14 treated in hospitals. Among the injured in the second set of bombings, after midnight, were six foreigners, according to officials at the Police Hospital. One, a woman, was rushed to the hospital with one of her legs blown off, iTV said.
#9
Thanks TW and Sawatdee Pi Mai (Happy New Year in Thai) to all. We're looking at 7 or 8 separate IEDs, up to 40 wounded (some seriously), and 3 confirmed dead. The last set of IEDs went off shortly after midnight and wounded several (6 or 7) foreigners and Thais. Knowing what I know about IEDs in this region, I do NOT think this is the work of the insurgents (I went to Bomb Camp if you know what I mean). Initial reports I'm getting say some of the IEDs were low order and relatively small. We've seen numerous small IEDs in BKK in the past 2 years - all very similar in size and triggering and politically motivated. My gut (and another more reliable source) tells me this is connected to internal Thai politics. The hard boys in the South, while capable, don't need to bomb BKK - they're doing fine. They use different types of explosives (ANFO-type) and they tend to be larger. It will be few days until I can ping a few boys in brown (aka Thai police) and see if I can't find out more.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
12/31/2006 15:13 Comments ||
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#10
Hay billy, is the firecracker smoke a fog this year as well? If I remember right the clowd is about five stories high and choking, but then by midnight in Bangkok I was long passed out.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/31/2006 16:43 Comments ||
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A man who said he was the Shadow fugitive Abu Sulaiman claimed responsibility for the explosion Thursday at a shopping mart in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat.
"I dunnit an' I'm glad! Muhahahahahaha!"
The man made the claim on Friday morning when he called up radio station Bombo Radyo Marbel, and said he and his companions carried the attack on Kimsan Plaza to force the owners to give their demand. He said he and his companions were members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a claim that was denied immediately by the spokesman of the MILF. "We are asking P50,000 monthly from the store so we would not disrupt their operations," the purported Abu Sulaiman said in the radio interview.
The claim came as authorities said they eyed extortion as the motive behind the bomb attack that appeared to be intended to damage property than kill people. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu, on Friday, quickly disowned Sulaiman who is hunted by the military for allegedly masterminding the other previous bombings elsewhere in Southwestern Mindanao, and said that the MILF "does not engage in extortion activities".
"C'mon man, do we have to do this now? I was just about to dig into this delicious truffled foie gras and whirled peas reduction."
"We have no Abu Sulaiman under the MILF's 3rd Brigade, 105th Base Command," he said. The guerrilla brigade (guerilla brigade?) has an operational area that includes areas in Southwestern Mindanao and portions of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Sultan Kudarat Gov. Pax Mangudadatu condemned the attack but also chided the store management for apparently relaxing on its security measures. Tacurong Fitmart, the largest department store in the area, has also received similar extortion letters from the group that carried the Kimsan attack, said local police chief Supt. Joel Limson. He did not identify the group, though. The explosion came closely at heightened military security measures after a motorcycle laden with a bomb was found last Saturday near a checkpoint in Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat.
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.
Somalias prime minister has asked clan elders in Mogadishu to surrender Al-Qaeda suspects who are believed to be sheltering in the city after his forces, with Ethiopian military support, drove out Islamic militias which controlled the capital. 
Ethiopian and Somali troops are reported to be heading south towards the stronghold of Islamist fighters driven from the capital on Thursday. Ethiopian tanks are advancing to the port city of Kismayo, 500km (300 miles) south of Mogadishu. A senior figure in the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) has vowed that the group is still alive and ready to fight. 
Militants struck on Saturday in Pampore town on the Srinagar-Jammu highway, killing a police officer and a civilian. Three others were injured. Suspected militants fired upon Station House Officer Pampore Manzoor Ahmad when he was on patrol duty in the market. Witnesses said that one of them 
