#5
I'm so thankful to have found this site. While reading military sites I came upon it. ;)
The only bad thing is that I never have enough time to read it all, juggling work et all.
Yes, thank you to Fred and all of the mods here, you all do a fabulous job. Thank you.
Everyone have a wonderful Happy Healthy and Safe 2007!
Posted by: Jan ||
01/01/2007 0:43 Comments ||
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#7
Ein shoenes Rutsch ins Neujahr, TZSenator, snd all who have some German. Well wished, Barbara -- may it all come true. And my wish for all that is good in the coming year to all who read this, Rantburgers named, nymed, randomly anonymized, or lurking! (Except trolls, of course, but they rapidly get their just deserts in these parts, so it doesn't matter if they briefly share the good wishes.)
#8
PIMF, darn it! schoenes unless it's schoener or schoene. I never managed to remember the gender of Rutsch, since I only encountered it once a year while we were over there. ;-)
#11
Bonne et heureuse année à tous! Santé, prospérité et succès, pour vous et les vôtres!
En espérant aussi que, sur un plan moins personnel, 2007 soit porteuse de nombreux changements... à commencer par un sérieux bottage de cul iranien. We can only hope, I guess.
#12
Happy New Year and warmest wishes to all Rantburgers, to all those in the uniform and service of the USA and its righteous allies, to brave Iraqis, Afghans, and others trying to do the right thing to bring their nations into the light, to those bearing the burden of leadership and decision at this difficult time, and to our gracious host and moderators for providing this resource and outlet.
#21
S novim godom to all Rantburgers and to Fred, our gracious host, and especially to our men and women in uniform and their gallant allies. May there be victory and prosperity in the new year for the good guys (that's us, NYT).
Posted by: Jonathan ||
01/01/2007 10:59 Comments ||
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#22
And a Hili Salsi too all yall, too!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/01/2007 11:14 Comments ||
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#24
Yes, to echo fever's comment...THANK YOU FRED and all the mods for a place that provides some sanity and common sense in this world. Happy New Year to all, and I apologize for channeling JOEM for just a moment above.
Posted by: BA ||
01/01/2007 11:41 Comments ||
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#25
Rantburg - the first place I check every morning (and not just for the babe-of-the-day), and the last place I check at night. God bless Fred and the mods, and greatly increase their well-being in all ways. May the new year be the best ever, until next year!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2007 14:24 Comments ||
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#26
Ohhh, she's a nice one, to start this new year on a positive impression.
#28
Best wishes to all the RB regulars, all the RB lurkers, and to everyone who stops by for a post or two and surfs on, shaking their heads in puzzlement.
Happy New Year and Peace On Earth to men of good will.
#30
Onnellista uutta vuotta! (not that I could pronounce this properly - or anything else Finn - if my life depended upon it)
Best wishes to Fred, the mods, Rantburgers in general and everyone out there doing what they can to protect and defend our liberty and our civilzation. Life is a precious gift, so let's make this year count.
#34
venezuala, Korea, iran, and china are bonding resources for a regime to help Al-queda I think.
I suspect they are quietly building and planning. I think have some sort of communication route through saudi to pakistan and iran and through Egypt to Saudi. Wouldn't be surprised if some resources were coming in from Russia and Germany under the table as well. I just wonder what type of insurgents are going to be fueled by Saddam's hanging. I hope our defense and intelligence are on the ball. We are not in a good position for defending ourselves right now. I don't feel comfortable with OBL'S quietness. I'm afraid it is a calm before a storm. What do you all think?
Somali government forces and Ethiopian allies rained down mortars and rockets on Islamist fighters dug in near a southern port town on Sunday to start a battle that could be the last stand for the Islamists. As night fell, the Islamists who fled Mogadishu three days ago to take refuge around the towns of Kismayu and nearby Jilib, fired back from trenches in scrubby bushland, witnesses said. "We will continue fighting the Ethiopians from everywhere until they leave Somalia," Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Ali Mudey told Reuters from the area.
It was unclear if, after two weeks of war, the two sides would go on fighting through the night and into the New Year. Night battles are unusual in Somalia. The besieged Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) has rallied several thousand fighters at Jilib, just north of the port town of Kismayu on the shores of the Indian Ocean, after a retreat south 300 km (190 miles) from the capital Mogadishu. Fearing a blood-bath, residents ran for their lives, carrying blankets, food and water on their heads. "Two-thirds of the population in Jilib have fled the town... nearly 4,700 have fled," aid worker Osman Mohamed said.
The Islamists have built trenches with bulldozers and have more than 60 "technicals" -- pickups mounted with heavy weapons -- supporting some 3,000 fighters, witnesses say. "We decided to come to the bush here in order to continue with the jihad against Ethiopia. I am on the frontline, I'm just waiting to kill the invading Ethiopians," spokesman Mudey added.
Amid confusing initial reports, residents said they saw mortars and rockets falling on deserted houses in Jilib from Bulobaley on one of two roads the Ethiopian-Somali government force had been marching along toward the Islamist defenses. "They are using heavy and light weapons against each other. I have to flee from some of the weapons that are hitting the town," resident Madey Osman said. Jilib lies about 45 kms (28 miles) north of Kismayu, where senior Islamist leaders Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed are based.
The intervention of Ethiopia has reversed the fortunes of the government and the hardline religious SICC, which just two weeks ago controlled the capital and appeared on the verge of routing a weak interim government stranded in a provincial town. Now the government has control of Mogadishu and the Islamists -- without tanks or planes -- are fighting with their backs to the sea and Somalia's southern border with Kenya.
Kenya has reinforced its northern border and U.S. forces are also said to be in the region, including the sea, to prevent foreign militants aligned with the Islamists from escaping. Ethiopia says it has 4,000 troops in Somalia, though many believe that number could be far higher. Somalia's government has not given troop numbers, but is thought by experts to have several thousand.
Islamist leaders called their flight to Kismayu a tactical move to avoid civilian bloodshed in Mogadishu. The SICC who have been offered an amnesty by the government if they surrender, say they are ready to negotiate with the U.N.-endorsed interim government, but that the Ethiopian soldiers backing it must first leave.
Born out of sharia courts operating in Mogadishu, the Islamists threw U.S.-backed warlords out of the capital in June before going on to take a swathe of south Somalia. They brought order to Mogadishu for the first time since 1991 when warlords ousted a dictator. But some of their hardline practices -- like closing cinemas and holding public executions -- angered some Somalis and fueled U.S. and Ethiopian accusations they were a dangerous Taliban-style movement.
Both Addis Ababa and Washington say the SICC is linked to al Qaeda, an accusation the movement says is trumped up to justify foreign intervention. Ethiopia also accuses arch-foe Eritrea of supporting the Islamists. Eritrea has accused Ethiopia of planting Eritrean identity cards on the battlefield to back up those claims.
Mogadishu residents have greeted the joint Ethiopian and government force with a mix of jubilation, fear and protests. President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi face a monumental task to tame the city that U.S. forces left more than a decade ago after an ill-fated intervention captured in the Hollywood film "Black Hawk Down." Analysts say it is hard to see how Yusuf and Gedi can establish authority and pacify Somalia without the military presence of Ethiopia, which has vowed to exit as soon as it can.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
Nope, the cowards of ICU ran again, to the hill country south of Kismayu. The Ethiopians and TFG started a major artillery barrage, and then suddenly stopped getting return fire. Check the BBC News, the ICU ran and left their trenchworks.
Poor Ethiopia seems to be the only nation that takes declarations of war from islamists seriously and is actually willing to do something about it. I hope we are sending them some money to help out.
#5
Notice how the reporters have stopped calling it "the powerful" Islamic courts militia like they were before they got their a**es kicked by the Ethiopians?
#6
We are sending more than money : USSOCOM has its Horn of Africa Command based in Djibouti, and signal and satellite intel has been shared with the Ethiopians. Also, they have been getting military training and equipment from the US for years, and that was expanded after 9/11.
#8
Born out of sharia courts operating in Mogadishu, the Islamists threw U.S.-backed warlords out of the capital in June before going on to take a swathe of south Somalia. They brought order to Mogadishu for the first time since 1991 when warlords ousted a dictator. But some of their hardline practices -- like closing cinemas and holding public executions -- angered some Somalis and fueled U.S. and Ethiopian accusations they were a dangerous Taliban-style movement.
#10
It also looks like they've gotten substantial logistical assistance from the U. S. And they've paid attention.
Now that they've got a little practice under their belt, where else could they go? Why a look at my dandy desk globe indicates the Sudan is right next door...
#11
All-Africa News says the islamists have fled Kismayo, and are heading "into the hill country" north of there. I'm sure they'll try to slip into Sudan or Kenya from there, although the Kenyans are supposedly enforcing their border area. The Brave Lions of Islam(TM) once more have fled instead of fighting.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2007 14:49 Comments ||
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#12
I have NO confidence in the nortoriously corrupt Kenyan Border Guards stopping the jihadis. Now, if a BLT+ was there with air support off-shore, I would have a higher degree of confidence.
What else does one expect when you use a HAMMER without the ANVIL?
#16
FR: Thanks, I, for one didn't.
And I especially like the quote "Islamist leaders called their flight to Kismayu a tactical move to avoid civilian bloodshed..." Yeah, it's only fun when WE spill civvie blood.
Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes attacked Islamist fighters dug in for a last stand near a southern port town on Sunday, witnesses said. "Fighting has started here. We are on the outskirts of Jilib," lawmaker Abdirashid Hidig told Reuters by phone.
The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) had urged their fighters and locals to rally around Jilib and the nearby port town of Kismayu after retreating south 300 km (190 miles) from the capital Mogadishu. Carrying blankets, food and water on their heads, thousands of frantic people fled ahead of a showdown that has been looming since the Islamists abandoned the Somali capital to advancing government forces on Thursday. "Two thirds of the population in Jilib have fled the town... nearly 4,700 have fled," aid worker Osman Mohamed said.
The Islamists used bulldozers to dig deep trenches outside Jilib, where about 3,000 of their fighters were based with more than 60 "technicals" -- pickups mounted with heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2007 00:00 ||
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Sudan's air force has carried out new bombing raids against two rebel areas of Darfur province, the African Union says. The fresh attacks on Saturday threatened to de-rail a peace deal between Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), the main rebel group, the AU said in a statement on Sunday.
"For the first time, I visited them in the field and I was able to get a ceasefire commitment from them. Unfortunately it looks like I led them to the area to get bombed."
The bombings came just a day after African Union (AU) officials visited the area on Friday to secure their commitment to a ceasefire, Luke Aprezi, commander of a 7,000 strong AU force in Darfur said.
One rebel group confirmed the attack, but did not say much damage had been caused. "For the first time, I visited them [rebels] in the field in Um Rai [North Darfur] ... and I was able to get a ceasefire commitment from them," Aprezi said. "Unfortunately [Sudan's army] went and bombed the area and it looks like I led them to the area to get bombed."
The meeting was held on Friday and he notified the government of it, he said. Aprezi's AU force, hampered by lack of equipment and funds, has struggled to stem the violence in remote western Sudan.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Two people have been killed and another one was wounded in bomb explosion in north of Mogadishu in Somalia overnight it looks like to be the first bomb attack against the interim government but missed the target.
Witnesses told SomaliNet that two unknown militiamen have thrown a hand grenade to a house near Ramadan Hotel in north of the Somalia capital where the Ethiopian backed government troops were staying. The bomb killed a mother and her daughter and injured the father, Ahmed Iyow Jimale, local resident said. The explosion happened around 9:30 pm last night.
Mother Sahro Abshir Farah and her daughter Ayan Ahmed Iyow passed away as the bomb exploded inside their house but the father got light injury. No word yet from the transitional government officials in the capital on the latest bomb attack.
It is not clear who was behind last nights deadly explosion. The explosion came hours after the Islamist leader called for the Somali people to resist what he called the Ethiopian forces that occupied the country.
Meanwhile, some people, most of them children and women, staged demonstrations against the Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu. Another opposite demonstration, in which demonstrators were supporting the arrival of the Ethiopians, has taken place in Mogadishu on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2007 00:00 ||
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KISMAYU, Somalia - Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and jet fighters edged towards the southern port town of Kismayu on Sunday to attack retreating Islamists who have dug in for a last stand.
Mines laid by fighters of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) across the routes to Kismayu have slowed the advance of the government forces. That has bought the Islamists time to prepare their defences and rouse followers with vows of a holy war on the shores of the Indian Ocean. We will fight the Ethiopians, God willing, we will remove them from our land, said SICC Kismayu area head of security Ahmed Ali from the frontline just north of the town.
"I'll be right behind you guys! Honest!"
Hundreds of residents have fled in preparation for a showdown that has been building since the Islamists retreated 300 km (190 miles) south to Kismayu after abandoning the capital Mogadishu to advancing government forces on Thursday.
Kenya has reinforced its northern border and US forces are also said to be in the region to prevent foreign militants aligned with the Islamists from escaping.
The Islamists are thought to have 3,000-4,000 fighters, including locals and foreign radicals, analysts say.
Ethiopia says it has 4,000 troops in Somalia, though many believe that number could be far higher. The Somali government has not given troop numbers, but is thought by experts to have several thousand.
A Somali government soldier said the attack would begin on Sunday night at the Islamists northernmost frontline in Jilib, about 45 km (28 miles) north of Kismayu on the coast. The Ethiopians plan to shower the Islamist troops with artillery tonight until they run away. They then want to capture Jilib by tomorrow, the soldier told Reuters from the convoy. We are now 30 km from Jilib.
Showering them with artillery is good. Knowing up front that they'll run is very good.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/01/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Africa is big. I play WWII wargames, and the setup for Ethiopia/Somalia/Sudan takes as much space as all of the USSR east of the Urals.
#4
another useful quote from Bill's story:
The Islamic Court's decision to muster its forces in the south is a curious one. The leadership essentially decided to hem itself into a narrow corridor with the Indian Ocean to the east and the Kenyan border to the west and south, and the Ethiopian and TFG forces to the north.
"They first thought they could escape to Kenya because the ethnic Somalis in Kenya were sympathetic to them, but the Kenyan government immediately closed its border. Then they thought they could flee by taking boats to Eritrea but the American warships blocked that escape route,"
A Greek aircraft bound for Athens from New York was given the all-clear after a dawn emergency landing in Ireland on Sunday, prompted by a telephone tip-off that there was a bomb on board for Saddam (Hussein), the executed Iraqi leader.
The Olympic Airlines plane, carrying 183 passengers and 12 crew, was told by its airline to land at the nearest airport following the tip-off and touched down at Shannon, western Ireland, at 4:20 am GMT. Those aboard disembarked while the aircraft, an Airbus 340, was searched. Unknown individuals speaking English with an Arab accent warned of the presence of a bomb on the plane, saying it was for Saddam, an airline spokesman said, adding that two calls had been received at Athens airport early on Sunday morning. The plane was searched by police who found nothing and gave it the all-clear at around 10:30 am GMT, a spokeswoman for Shannon airport said. Theyre going to tow the aircraft back, let on the passengers and get going, she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2007 00:21 ||
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Anti-terrorism forces in Pakistan have been told to brace themselves for a wave of atrocities. Intelligence officials warned that the security situation is now more precarious than it was before the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Senior officers say they are "back to square one" in their fight against international terrorist groups after the release of dozens of militants by Pakistani courts. High-ranking police officials say that as many as 80 hard-core militants are on the loose after being cleared by the courts or released on bail.
They are believed to have been involved in crimes including the attempted assassination of President Pervez Musharraf and a suicide attack on the American consulate in Karachi.
A memo sent by Pakistan's interior ministry to law enforcement agencies around the country warns of a plot to use suicide bombers to target Britons and Americans, including diplomats, in a coordinated campaign involving some of the country's most notorious terrorist groups. The ministry warned that the bombers were also believed to be looking at high-profile individuals and military installations as potential targets.
Last month, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, warned of the growing threat from within Pakistan. She said young British Muslims were being groomed to become suicide bombers and that most of the 1,600 suspects being tracked by her agents were British-born but linked to al-Qaeda in Pakistan.
MI5 is reported to have compiled detailed dossiers on British Muslims travelling to jihadist training camps in Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan, the region where the United States believes Osama bin Laden is hiding. At least two of the British Muslims involved in the Tube and bus bombings in London on July 7 last year are known to have visited training camps in Pakistan.
Anti-terrorism officers in Pakistan say they are deeply alarmed by the security situation. "We are back to square one and the situation is more precarious than it was before 9/11," one senior officer told The Sunday Telegraph. "They are planning more attacks. They have got huge backup. There are so many youths who are joining them. The old ones who are released from the prison are guiding and training the new cadres."
The interior ministry memo warns: "We would like to direct all the concerned -security departments to tighten security around important personalities inside Pakistan, and to keep a constant eye on the movement of people who had previously provided shelter to militants linked to terror organisations."
Counter-terrorism officials are aghast at the decision by the courts to free so many people suspected of involvement in attacks. Police say many have since disappeared off the radar of intelligence agencies and are believed to be planning to strike.
Among those released recently are Sohail Akhtar (aka Mustafa), the operational commander of the outlawed Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami group. He has been blamed for a campaign that included a suicide attack in Karachi in which 11 French engineers died, the suicide attack on the US consulate, and the failed attempt on the president's life. Intelligence officers say Mustafa who was initially sentenced to death before a court overturned the verdict is also believed to have travelled to Iraq to establish contact between al-Qaeda and terrorists there. His interrogators described him as "a terrorist genius".
One official said: "He was the one who cobbled together all the jihadis, working under various organisations, by coining the slogan, 'The ways should be different but the goal should be one'."
Officials said they had intercepted jihadist manuals which Mustafa wrote while in the prison, in which he had set out precise instructions on how to carry out attacks and maintain security.
Other militants released by the courts include Fazal Karim, who is believed to have been present at the killing of the American journalist Daniel Pearl, and Qari Mohammed Anwar (also known as Abu Darada). Anwar was arrested at an al-Qaeda safe house in Karachi along with Khalid al-Atash who is wanted by the FBI in connection with the USS Cole bombings off Yemen and Ammar al-Balochi, who was allegedly involved earlier this year in a plot to attack Heathrow airport.
The government has called a meeting in Islamabad this week to discuss the release of militants. It may put forward a strategy to deter the courts from clearing suspects or releasing them on bail.
But police admit that their own methods have contributed to the problem. A senior official said police had taken to producing false witnesses because members of the public were too scared to testify in court. In addition, officers did not have the modern forensic tools to gather evidence.
Posted by: ed ||
01/01/2007 20:49 ||
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TWO suspected Islamic militants had been arrested with explosives hidden inside toys which they planned to blow up at a busy market in New Delhi, Indian police said today. Samimullah and Ali Mohammad, both from Indian Kashmir, were arrested at a New Delhi railway station on suspicion of belonging to pro-Pakistan militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, senior police official Karnal Singh said.
The arrests came amid tight security in the Indian capital ahead of New Year festivities. "We received a tip-off that the two men would be coming by train from Jammu (the winter capital of Indian Kashmir)," Mr Singh said. "We detained them and during interrogation they admitted to being members of the Lashkar, and their plan was to plant two explosive devices."
In their luggage, a bomb disposal squad found two boxes with the toys - a toy duck and a toy bus - filled with explosives, he said. "It took the squad around three hours to deactivate the two bombs."
Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of several groups battling Indian rule in Kashmir, was blamed for the October 29, 2005 triple bomb attacks in New Delhi, just ahead of the main Hindu festival of Diwali. Those attacks killed 66 and injured at least 200 others. The group was also blamed for the July 11 commuter train attacks in Mumbai this year that killed 186 people and injured about 800. New Delhi has been under a security blanket for the past week ahead of New Year festivities and in the run-up to the country's 58th Republic Day celebrations on January 26.
After investigating the three bomb blasts that took place in Karachi in 2006, the police have come to the conclusion that terrorist groups with different priorities have ganged up. They are specifically worried about the Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, Al Qaeda and the Abdullah Mehsud-led group of Afghanistan. That'd be the Wazoo branch of the Taliban.
The first suicide bombing took place on March 3 behind the US Consulate, killing diplomat David Foy and three others. Two men, Anwarul Haq and Usman Ghani, are being tried in an anti-terrorism court for the attack. The alleged suicide bomber was identified as Raja Mohammad Tahir, a resident of Karachi, who had spent time in Afghanistan and Wana and had alleged links with Al Qaeda. The car that was used in the attack had been fitted with the explosives in Wana, the police claim.
The second suicide bombing took place about a month later, on April 11, at Nishtar Park at an Eid Miladun Nabi prayer congregation. More than 60 people died, including the entire top hierarchy of the Sunni Tehreek (of the Barelvi school of thought). During investigations, the police, who termed it the biggest terrorist attack of the year, began to suspect that it was sectarian. Up till now this case could not be solved completely, said a senior CID investigator, who did not wish to be named. But what has surfaced is that the Nishtar Park bombing was about a sectarian clash. Not sectarian in the Sunni versus Shia sense, but sectarian in the Deobandi versus Brelvi sense.
The third suicide attack was on July 14 in which Allama Hasan Turabi was killed along with his nephew outside his house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. During investigations, the police caught a group from Karachi and identified the suicide attacker as a 16-year-old of Bengali origin named Abdul Karim from Karachi. The police followed clues that took them to Wana in this case, leading them to conclude that the LJ, Al Qaeda and the Abdullah Mehsud-led group of Afghanistan were behind the job. I think of the three as a single entity, which we could define as al-Qaeda in Pakistan. The Qaeda boyz are the Arab master race overlords, the Jhangvi thugs the Punjabi muscle, and the Mehsud hard boyz the Pashtun local police force.
Investigators told Daily Times that some LJ men with links to Karachi went to Wana where they got in touch with the Abdullah Mehsud-led group. They then befriended Abdullah Mehsuds cousin, Abid Mehsud. Through Abid they developed more links with Al Qaeda in Karachi and upon Abids advice roped in some young men from Orangi Town. The Orangi fellows are probably free-lancers used as throw-aways, a dime a dozen in any Deobandi madrassah.
The jacket that was used in the Turabi suicide attack had been prepared in Darra Adam Khel by a man the investigators called Hazrat Ali, who was found dead after an explosion in a house in the area. CID investigators said that for the first time it has been proved that LJ and Al Qaeda worked together in the sectarian case. Karim, who allegedly killed Turabi, was, however, neither linked to the LJ nor Al Qaeda, investigators pointed out, saying that they believed he was brainwashed into doing the job.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2007 00:00 ||
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SRINAGAR, India: A suspected Islamic terrorist militant gunned down a police chief after posing as a Muslim woman hidden behind a veil in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday, an official said. The brazen attack that killed Pampore police chief Manzoor Ahmed set off a gunbattle that also left a civilian dead and two constables wounded, said police officer Hemant Lohia.
The attacker donned the veil in order to get close to Ahmed, who was on foot patrol at the time of the shooting, Lohia said. The assailant was able to flee the scene, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state.
Ahmed was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was later pronounced dead, Lohia said. The condition of one of the wounded constables was listed as serious.
Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a militant group based in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to a Srinagar-based news agency, the Current News Service. Abdullah Gaznavi, who identified himself as a spokesman for Lashkar, said Ahmed's killing was in revenge for his involvement in the deaths of many Lashkar guerrillas.
Posted by: john ||
01/01/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Next week's headlines. Indian police condemned worldwide for shooting a burqa clad woman.
#5
Easy enough to put a stop to - outlaw the burqa. The muzzies will seethe, but they do that anyway. It's time to put the screws to those that want to use religion as an excuse to enslave their fellow men.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2007 15:07 Comments ||
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Amid high alert on New Year's eve, police on Sunday arrested two alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists and claimed to have foiled a plan to trigger bomb blasts in the busy Paharganj, scene of deadly pre-Diwali explosion just over a year ago.
They were proceeding to plant explosives in Paharganj, barely a kilometre away from Connaught Place, the heart of New Year celebrations.
Samiullah (34) and Ali Mohammad (26), both hailing from Kashmir, were nabbed outside the New Delhi Railway Station when they were proceeding to plant explosives in Paharganj, barely a kilometre away from Connaught Place, the heart of New Year celebrations. "Happy new year. Stick 'em up, explodo-boyz!"
Two improvised explosive devices were seized from the duo who arrived in the capital from Jammu by the Andaman Express, Joint Commissioner of Police (special cell) Karnal Singh said. The LeT operatives were planning to plant the explosives in the busy market, next to the railway station, and leave by the same train to Chennai, Singh said. The IEDs were in the form of toy cars.
Immediately after the arrest, police carried out a search in the railway station area apprehending that the terrorists might have kept some explosives in the vicinity. Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad was pressed into service to scour through the area. On eve of Diwali last year, terrorists had struck in Paharganj and two other places in the capital by triggering serial blasts in which 65 people had died.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2007 00:00 ||
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Posted by: ed ||
01/01/2007 20:46 ||
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#1
U.S. forces attacked the office of a Sunni Arab lawmaker in the Iraqi capital early this morning while conducting a raid on a suspected Al Qaeda safe house next door.
Insurgents killed at least seven people, including three Iraqi soldiers, on Sunday as former dictator Saddam Hussein was buried in his home village a day after his execution, security officials said.
A group of gunmen in vehicles attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in Hawijah, west of Kirkuk, killing three soldiers and wounding another two, local police Capt Atallah Mahmud said. Four more people were killed in several attacks in Baghdad.
Two were killed and another two wounded when apparent Sunni extremists fired a Katyusha rocket in the capitals northwest Shia district of Kadhimiyah where Saddam was hanged on Saturday at a former torture cell. Another Iraqi was killed and six others wounded in a car bomb attack in the northern neighbourhood of Hurriyah, a day after 37 people died in a triple car bomb attack in the same area.
In yet another attack, one person was killed and five wounded in a car bomb explosion in the Shawaqha neighbourhood of downtown Baghdad.
Iraqi forces backed by US troops detained 20 people in raids against insurgents suspected of manufacturing or planting bombs, the US military said on Sunday.
In one raid Saturday near Habaniyah, 80 kilometres west of Baghdad, troops captured 15 people suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda in Iraq, the military said. They were believed to have been involved in roadside bomb and small arms attacks against convoys in the Habaniyah and Fallujah area, the military said in a statement. Another five people were detained on Saturday in Fallujah, 65 kilometres west of Baghdad, another statement said. US and Iraqi troops were searching for a suspect believed to be selling bombs to other insurgents and to Al Qaeda in Iraq, as well as smuggling foreign fighters into the country, it said. No Iraqi or US deaths resulted from the raids.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2007 00:24 ||
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A previously unknown group of Iraqi Baathists pledged allegiance to Saddam Hussein's fugitive deputy Izzat Ibrahim and named him the "legitimate president of Iraq," a statement issued by the group said Sunday.
The statement was distributed in Amman at the Jordan branch of Saddam's Baath party where dozens of people came to pay condolences for the former president who was hanged to death Saturday. The statement was apparently sent from the Baath party in Baghdad. "In the name of Baghdad's Citizens Gathering, we pledge allegiance to Gen. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri as the legitimate president of Iraq and the chief of the armed forces," said the statement.
Ibrahim, Saddam's former deputy and now a fugitive with a US$10 million (7.59 million) bounty on his head, has not been seen since the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003. He is believed to be leading Baathists participating in the insurgency that has left thousands of US and allied troops dead.
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01/01/2007 00:00 ||
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Tamil Tiger rebels fired mortars at a military camp in eastern Sri Lanka, killing a soldier and wounding three others, the Defense Ministry said Sunday. The attack took place Saturday near Muruvikulama in Batticaloa District, a hotbed of continuing violence between the military and the rebels, said military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe. They fired mortars twice at one of our camps and that killed one soldier and wounded three others, he said. Later Saturday, air force fighter jets bombed a rebel artillery base in the east, near the site of the rebel mortar attack, Samarasinghe said.
Planes also pounded and destroyed an insurgent training base in northern Mullaithivu, Samarasinghe said. The rebels said four people were wounded, two seriously, in the airstrikes in the east. In an e-mailed statement, the rebels said the bombs fell on houses in two villages already damaged by earlier attacks.
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01/01/2007 00:26 ||
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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.
New Year 
Somali government forces and Ethiopian allies rained down mortars and rockets on Islamist fighters dug in near a southern port town on Sunday to start a battle that could be the last stand for the Islamists. As night fell, the Islamists who fled Mogadishu three days ago to take refuge around the towns of Kismayu and nearby Jilib, fired back from trenches in scrubby bushland, witnesses said. "We will continue fighting the Ethiopians from everywhere until they leave Somalia," Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Ali Mudey told Reuters from the area. 
The Islamists have built trenches with bulldozers and have more than 60 "technicals" -- pickups mounted with heavy weapons -- supporting some 3,000 fighters, witnesses say. "We decided to come to the bush here in order to continue with the jihad against Ethiopia. I am on the frontline, I'm just waiting to kill the invading Ethiopians," spokesman Mudey added.
Amid confusing initial reports, residents said they saw mortars and rockets falling on deserted houses in Jilib from Bulobaley on one of two roads the Ethiopian-Somali government force had been marching along toward the Islamist defenses. "They are using heavy and light weapons against each other. I have to flee from some of the weapons that are hitting the town," resident Madey Osman said. Jilib lies about 45 kms (28 miles) north of Kismayu, where senior Islamist leaders Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed are based.
Mogadishu residents have greeted the joint Ethiopian and government force with a mix of jubilation, fear and protests. President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi face a monumental task to tame the city that U.S. forces left more than a decade ago after an ill-fated intervention captured in the Hollywood film "Black Hawk Down." Analysts say it is hard to see how Yusuf and Gedi can establish authority and pacify Somalia without the military presence of Ethiopia, which has vowed to exit as soon as it can.
Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes attacked Islamist fighters dug in for a last stand near a southern port town on Sunday, witnesses said. "Fighting has started here. We are on the outskirts of Jilib," lawmaker Abdirashid Hidig told Reuters by phone.
Sudan's air force has carried out new bombing raids against two rebel areas of Darfur province, the African Union says. The fresh attacks on Saturday threatened to de-rail a peace deal between Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), the main rebel group, the AU said in a statement on Sunday. 
(SomaliNet) Two people have been killed and another one was wounded in bomb explosion in north of Mogadishu in Somalia overnight it looks like to be the first bomb attack against the interim government but missed the target. 
KISMAYU, Somalia - Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and jet fighters edged towards the southern port town of Kismayu on Sunday to attack retreating Islamists who have dug in for a last stand.
The arrests came amid tight security in the Indian capital ahead of New Year festivities. "We received a tip-off that the two men would be coming by train from Jammu (the winter capital of Indian Kashmir)," Mr Singh said. "We detained them and during interrogation they admitted to being members of the Lashkar, and their plan was to plant two explosive devices."
After investigating the three bomb blasts that took place in Karachi in 2006, the police have come to the conclusion that terrorist groups with different priorities have ganged up. They are specifically worried about the 
SRINAGAR, India: A suspected Islamic 
Amid high alert on New Year's eve, police on Sunday arrested two alleged 
Insurgents killed at least seven people, including three Iraqi soldiers, on Sunday as former dictator Saddam Hussein was buried in his home village a day after his execution, security officials said.
A previously unknown group of Iraqi Baathists pledged allegiance to Saddam Hussein's fugitive deputy Izzat Ibrahim and named him the "legitimate president of Iraq," a statement issued by the group said Sunday. 
