SANGIN VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN More than 2,000 NATO and Afghan troops began an operation before dawn Monday to drive Taliban fighters from another swath of their opium-producing heartland in southern Afghanistan. The British-led Operation Silicon is the latest attempt to extend the shaky control of President Hamid Karzai's government in Helmand province, officials said.
Military officials said the effort involved some 1,100 British troops, 600 U.S. soldiers and more from Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and Estonia. More than 1,000 Afghan government troops also were taking part. The troops are targeting Helmand's Sangin Valley, an area near Afghanistan's strategic ring road that has for too long been under the semi-control of the Taliban, said Lt.-Col. Stuart Carver, a British commander.
It is all part of a longer-term plan to restore the whole of Helmand to government control, Col. Carver said. You have to do it a piece at a time.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/30/2007 08:39 ||
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US-led coalition troops killed more than 130 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan over the past several days, the coalition said on Monday, but thousands of Afghans staged a protest saying the victims were civilians. Backed by air support, the Taliban were killed in two separate battles in the western province of Herat, the US military said in a statement.
The deaths triggered an angry protest - the second in the country in two days - over what local villagers say was the killing of civilians. Herat, bordering Iran, had been relatively safe until recently compared with the south and east, where the Taliban are most active. Both battles were in the Zerkoh valley, south of Shindand district, where Western troops have a large base, and running into Farah province further south.
A total of 87 Taliban fighters were killed during a 14-hour battle with US-led troops and Afghan forces on Sunday. Another 49 Taliban, including two of their leaders, were killed two days earlier after a group of Taliban fired at a joint coalition and Afghan patrol in another part of the valley.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/30/2007 08:05 ||
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#1
A civilian holding a weapon is no longer a civilian.
#4
Good shooting. So are these carbon neutral Pakistani taliban or Iranian stooges? I ask because Iran is repatriating a lot of Afghan refugees and I'm sure they have indoctrinated as many as they can.
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2007 9:19 Comments ||
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#5
but thousands of Afghans staged a protest saying the victims were civilians.
And these rabble were featured in my morning paper. Never a better target for a daisy cutter has ever existed than these taliban fellow-travelers and the traitor propagandist photographers.
#13
Let's recall a couple of points. Just last week command was discussing Iranian weapons being found in Afghanistan. Those would have been "imported" via Herat Province.
Herat is also the center of a serious "reconstruction" effort funded by the Iranians.
This is not about the Talibs. It's purely about Iran.
#16
MORE ON THIS BATTLE U.S. Special Forces soldiers, accompanied by Afghan National Police and other coalition members, identified and engaged several Taliban fighting positions 37 miles south of Shindand, in Herat province, while conducting a reconnaissance patrol yesterday.
After gaining intelligence describing Taliban activity in the Zerkoh Valley, coalition and Afghan National Police forces maneuvered into positions to pinpoint and attack the Taliban fighters. Once in position, coalition and Afghan National Police forces initiated the attack on the enemy positions with mortars, small arms and rocket propelled grenades.
A few hours later, additional coalition and Afghan National Army reinforcements arrived. A coalition aircraft was requested and dropped multiple munitions on several identified enemy locations. As Taliban fighters attempted to flee, an AC-130 gunship engaged and killed 26 enemy fighters on both sides of the river valley. A total of seven enemy positions were destroyed, and 87 Taliban fighters were killed during the 14-hour engagement.
Forty-eight hours earlier and under the cover of darkness, U.S. Special Forces and Afghan National Police patrolling near the village of Parmakan, in the Zerkoh Valley, received small-arms and rocket-propelled-grenade fire from more than 70 Taliban fighters.
During the engagement, 49 Taliban fighters, including two local Taliban leaders, were killed by a combination of small-arms fire and close-air support. As was previously reported on April 27, one U.S. Army soldier was killed in the engagement. And I am sitting here smiling. I [heart] our new policy that we are there to "kill the enemy" and we are very, very good at implementing the new policy.
#17
That one Army soldier took a very nice honour guard to wait on him in Heaven... all of whom are no doubt still in shock at the patent lack of virgins or any other of the promised delights for jihadis in the decidedly non-Muslim afterlife. Rest in peace, Soldier, with our thanks.
A raid on a suspected suicide bombing cell in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday left four militants and two civilians dead, the coalition said, as protesting locals claimed only civilians were killed.
A woman and a teenager were killed in a firefight that erupted when troops raided a compound in the eastern province of Nangarhar after credible information it was planning suicide car bombings, the US-led coalition said. During the operation, coalition forces received small arms fire from several militants as they attempted to enter the compound. Coalition forces returned fire, killing four militants, the coalition said in a statement. An adult woman and a teenager were also killed in the crossfire between militants and coalition forces, it said. The incident was in the Bati Kot area along the main highway to the Pakistan border, where US Marines were accused of opening fire on civilians after a March 4 ambush that killed about a dozen people.
After Sundays raid hundreds of people demonstrated on the highway, blocking it for several hours, saying the dead were all civilians and the government must call the coalition to account for its actions. The demonstrators were carrying the bodies of some of the dead, witnesses from the area said. The coalition said it was saddened by the loss of civilian lives.
NATO troops meanwhile pushed ahead with their largest-ever operation in the south in the opium heartland of Helmand province. In Nahri Sarraj district, a NATO service member was wounded on Sunday in a gunbattle with insurgents, NATOs International Security Assistance Force said. It provided no further details about the nationality of the wounded service member.
A young French woman freed by the Taliban after 24 days in captivity in Afghanistan arrived back in France early on Sunday, a source said. The source, who asked not to be named, said the aid worker had been taken to a calm place where she is resting and will undergo a medical examination. She will then be questioned, as is customary in such cases, by the French secret service that will try to find out as much as possible about her detention.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) The key roads in the areas of the recent fighting in south and north of the Somalia capital Mogadishu have been reopened and traffic resumed after being on barrier for approximately one month during the heavy and bloody clashes which raged between the Ethiopian forces and the local insurgents linked with the ousted Islamic Courts. Public transport buses began travelling on the road which links Sinai junction to KM4 roundabout in south of the capital as people return to their bullet riddled houses in the area. During the recent eight-day fighting in Mogadishu, these roads were deserted while residents fled their homes in fear of the shelling exchanged by the rival sides.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Security services ongoing investigations on April 11 attacks led to the arrest of a candidate to undertake the kamikaze attacks. The concerned person is 20-year old, called Mustapha and originated from southern Algiers, he has revealed that he has prepared with four other people the attacks. Sources revealed that the security services are inquiring about the young and referred his case to Sidi Mhamed court examining magistrate who remanded him under custody to be tried at the criminal court.
Sources made clear that Mustapha has been arrested the day after April 11 explosions at one of his relatives home in Borj El Kiffan East of Algiers after the testimony of other relatives he used to meet with from time to time to watch video recordings on explosive attacks in Iraq. Sources made clear that Mustapha has established contacts with the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat GSPC- during which he requested himself to undertake the kamikaze attacks, but the terrorist organization informed him that it had already recruited people to do that business, namely Zoubir Abu Sadjada and Abu Dajana.
UPDATE: Algiers, 30 April (AKI) - Algerian police have arrested five would-be suicide bombers, the local El Khabar daily reported Monday. The five are reportedly believed to have links with militants who carried out car bomb attacks on 11 April against the interior ministry and a police station in Algiers which left 30 dead. One of those arrested has confessed he was planning suicide attacks in the capital, El Khabar quoted police as saying.
That'd be our friend Mustapha. Looks like they got the four dudes he was training with.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Five Britons were found guilty of plotting to carry out al-Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain potentially killing hundreds at targets ranging from nightclubs to trains and a shopping centre. The gang planned to use 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser to make explosives to be used in bombings in revenge for Britain's support of the United States in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, prosecutors said.
Omar Khyam, Waheed Mahmood, Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar and Salahuddin Amin were convicted of conspiring with Canadian Mohammed Momin Khawaja to cause an explosion likely to endanger life. Garcia and Khyam were found guilty of possessing an article for terrorism - the fertiliser, and Khyam was also convicted of having aluminium powder - an ingredient in explosives. The men had denied all charges.
"Lies, all lies. We wuz framed!"
Khyam's brother Shujah Mahmood and another man, Nabeel Hussain, were found not guilty of being involved in the plot.
During the longest-ever terrorism related trial lasting more than a year, prosecutors said the men had only to decide on a target when they were arrested in 2004 before carrying out what would have been the first homegrown attack by Islamist militants. Police swooped on the suspects about 16 months before four British Islamists carried out suicide bombings on London's transport system in July 2005, killing 52 commuters.
The main prosecution witness in the case was Mohammed Babar, a Pakistan-born American who has admitted to terrorism-related offences in New York. He said he was the men's accomplice and had helped get materials to make the bombs. The prosecution said the men had discussed targets including London's biggest nightclub - the Ministry of Sound - gas, water and electricity supplies, synagogues, trains, planes, and a large shopping centre, Bluewater, to the east of the capital. Babar said some of the suspects had also suggested poisoning fast food takeaways and beer at soccer matches. "The only sensible conclusion is that al-Qaeda does sit behind it (the plot)," one senior British counter terrorism detective said.
This article starring:
ANTHONY GARCIA
al-Qaeda
JAWAD AKBAR
al-Qaeda in Europe
MOHAMED BABAR
al-Qaeda in Europe
MOHAMED MOMIN KHAWAJA
al-Qaeda in Europe
NABIL HUSEIN
al-Qaeda in Europe
OMAR KHYAM
al-Qaeda
SALAHUDIN AMIN
al-Qaeda in Europe
SHUJAH MAHMUD KHYAM
al-Qaeda in Europe
WAHID MAHMUD
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Steve ||
04/30/2007 08:08 ||
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#1
27 days of deliberation and two acquittals - one presumes the jury was deliberately loaded with allanists.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/30/2007 8:23 Comments ||
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#2
"one presumes the jury was deliberately loaded with allanists."
That means there are too many muzzies in Britain. Do you have small leaky rowboats?
#3
Five Britons were found guilty of plotting to carry out al-Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain
These Orc scum are not Britons. They will never be Britons. Their "law abiding" neighbors will never be Britons. Pack them off to their home nests or shoot them down. I no longer care what happens to them.
#5
The sooner it becomes politically correct to suggest repatriation of the entire British Muslim community the better.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/30/2007 10:13 Comments ||
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#6
The muslim community adds no benefit to the UK and have the highest unemployment mainly due to being lazy(Praying 5 times a day in their speak)and keeping their women as Houseslaves.
The average Joe in the pubs i drink want them sent back as they are more trouble than good!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
04/30/2007 11:40 Comments ||
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#7
"Praying 5 times a day in their speak." This is when they are not plotting the downfall of the country in which they live.
#8
1.6m pirates. They should be dealt with as pirates. And the traitors at the Beeb and in the universities should be hanged. It is only a question of time: Either Britain is conquered by the Moor or the Moor and his allies are f*cking dealt with.
#9
What pisses me of most is they claim every benefit going and still slag off the country for being unjust to them!!!!Why dont they live in an Islamic Country if they love Sharia Law so much?????
Oh thats right..... They would not be be given free housing,free education,free healthcare,free transport etc etc in these Wonderful Islamic Countries!!!!.
Only in Britain you can turn up with no ID,No money and be giving every thing for nothing!!!
To be honest i know they will never conquer the world as they dont know how to make money as most Islamic countries are hellholes living in poverty.If it wernt for the oil Saudi would also rival Sudan,Pakistan Somalia etc etc
Posted by: Paul ||
04/30/2007 12:18 Comments ||
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#10
Don't be a John Bull, Paul -- they can do the same in Canada. Just ask Excalibur. ;-)
#12
The sooner it becomes politically correct to suggest repatriation of the entire American Muslim community the better.
[The above comment altered for local consumption.]
If it were not for taqiyya, I might have compunctions over making such a statement. But because there is essentially no Muslim criticism of this singularly flawed Koranic doctrine, not a single one of them can be trusted. This mistrust is obligatory for anyone who intends to resist or survive Islam's attempts at global domination. I will go so far to say that if implementing such a policy demands the deportation of worthy Muslims like Dr. Jasser, then that is what must be endured.
A civilization with a stronger belief in its own rectitude would execute them within weeks.
As Islam escalates the monstrousness of its atrocities, this will probably come about. Perhaps not in Europe, unless a sea change occurs, but Americans will likely be far less understanding as the carnage increases.
Six men, including a Muslim named Abu Izzadeen, were charged in Britain on Sunday with inciting terrorism overseas and fundraising, police said. The men, aged between 21 and 35, were arrested in pre-dawn anti-terror raids on Tuesday, and were due to appear before City of Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Monday. The six Izzadeen, 27-year-old Omar Zaheer, Shal Jalal Hussein, 24, 35-year-old Simon Keeler, Ibrahim Abdullah Hassan, 21, 28-year-old Rajib Khan were all charged with terrorist fundraising. Izzadeen, Keeler, Hassan, Khan were also charged with inciting others to commit acts of terrorism overseas. In addition, Hassan faces the charge of possessing articles suspected to be related to the commission, preparation, or instigation of a terrorist attack.
The men were arrested at four addresses in east London, one in Southall, west London, and one in Luton, a town north of the capital, arrested by the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command and local police officers. The arrests were in relation to speeches made at a mosque two-and-a-half years ago. A well-known figure towards the extreme end of British Muslim opinion, convert Izzadeen repeatedly disrupted a speech by Reid in east London last September, calling him an enemy of Islam and a tyrant.
Izzadeen, a former electrician born in London to a Jamaican family, is said to be a former spokesman for the radical Islamist group Al-Ghurabaa. Al-Ghurabaa is an offshoot of the now disbanded Al-Muhajiroun led by radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, both of which are now banned in Britain. He came to prominence for refusing to condemn the deadly July 2005 suicide bombings in London and has described Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush as the real terrorists for military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This article starring:
ABU IZZADIN
Al-Ghurabaa
IBRAHIM ABDULLAH HASAN
Al-Ghurabaa
OMAR BAKRI MOHAMED
Al-Muhajiroun
OMAR ZAHIR
Al-Ghurabaa
RAJIB KHAN
Al-Ghurabaa
SHAL JALAL HUSEIN
Al-Ghurabaa
SIMON KILER
Al-Ghurabaa
Al-Ghurabaa
Al-Muhajiroun
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
What, no Episcopalians? I'm astounded. Bang the surprise meter again please.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Lawyers envision more suicides and despair at Guantanamo Bay if the U.S. Justice Department succeeds in severely restricting access to detainees by defense attorneys, virtually the only contact inmates have with the outside world. The only people you have to talk to are lawyers. No wonder they're suicidal...
The Justice Department has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to limit the number of lawyer visits allowed to three after an initial face-to-face meeting, to tighten censorship of mail from attorneys and to give the military more control over what they can discuss with detainees. Lawyers for detainees believe that if their visits are limited, detainee desperation will deepen and more will try to kill themselves. On June 10, 2006, two Saudi detainees and one Yemeni hanged themselves with sheets, the first and only suicides since the 2002 opening of the detention center that now holds about 380 inmates. Ya need another sheet there, Mahmoud? How about shoelaces? Ya need some shoelaces? "Belt looks a little tight there, Mahmoud, let's give you a longer belt."
"Visits by lawyers are one of the few bright spot these men have," attorney Zachary Katznelson told The Associated Press from Guantanamo, where he is spending two weeks to meet with 18 client detainees. ...and lawyer boy wonders why they're suicidal?
Clive Stafford Smith, an attorney for several Guantanamo detainees, said curtailing lawyer visits would likely lead more prisoners to attempt suicide. "The level of depression is soaring, I am afraid," he said over the weekend. Awwwwwww...
Many detainees are kept in isolation in small cells with no natural light. With no prison sentence having been pronounced except for one Australian detainee the detainees do not know when they will get out, if ever. Many have been there for more than five years. Jeez, sounds like time for another hunger strike...
Attorney Stephen Oleskey, who represents six Algerians, said more suicides are "a real risk" if the court restricts lawyer-client contacts. "I've seen firsthand the mental conditions of my clients deteriorate in isolation," Oleskey said from Boston. "And I think the impact of further restrictions would be dramatic." Ummmmmmm...so? ... and even if we'd release them, most of them have nowhere to go since their home countries don't want them ...
Meanwhile, Katznelson sees the move to restrict attorney access as an attempt to seal the facility from critics. "If we cannot come in, the only news getting out of here will be the government's carefully crafted version," Katznelson said in an e-mail Saturday. Instead of our carefully crafted version...
It is the attorneys, arriving at the base in southeast Cuba aboard military planes or tiny commuter flights, who provide the world with information about hunger strikes, solitary confinement and other details about the detainees. Journalists can visit but are barred by the military from interviewing detainees. The Red Cross, which occasionally visits, keeps its findings confidential. Here's an idea. Give their clients new roomates! Whaddya say counselors? All the access to 'em ya want, 24/7! Cheers the boys up! Whaddya say? A win-win for everybody!
But military commanders at Guantanamo and the Justice Department view the lawyers with suspicion. Well can ya beat that?
Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, told the AP the military has been giving broad lawyer access to many detainees even though they are accused of having al-Qaida or Taliban links and the United States is still at war. The mail system was "misused" to inform detainees about military operations in Iraq, activities of terrorist leaders, efforts in the war on terror, the Hezbollah attack on Israel and abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, the Justice Department said in this month's court filing. Hmmmm? Maybe grounds for disbarment?
Barry M. Kamin, president of the New York City Bar, called the assertions "astonishing and disingenuous" in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Lawyers for detainees also dismissed the claims, calling them a pretext to deprive detainees of proper legal representation. "There have been a lot of extreme statements made," said Oleskey, referring to U.S. government criticism of legal defense efforts. "I think it's unfortunate and it should stop." Lawyers lying? Preposterous, I tells ya! Preposterous!
#3
They should be placed on "suicide watch": if any of 'em try to off themselves, the guards should stand back and watch.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/30/2007 12:51 Comments ||
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#4
You can have suicide with a bomb or suicide without a bomb. Suicide without a bomb is far more preferable with these guys. You say they are hanging themselves with sheets. Give them more sheets.
#17
I heard last week it takes the lawyers a long time to gain the confidence of the detainees. Just having a Soros business card isn't enough.
So they gotta do some things to gain the confidence, ya know? Like letters, information, data, nifty stories, files, saws, stuff to throw at the guards, ya know? Like the nice lady that wuz disbarred last week, ya know whad I'm sayin', here?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/30/2007 14:53 Comments ||
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#18
mojo, yes the lawyers are only bitching because they can't keep charging the government for dead clients
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2007 21:05 Comments ||
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#24
The tone of the article is to suggest that depression and suicide tendencies on the part of detainees is the result of incarceration, particularly at the hands of the evil George Bush. What is never mentioned is that this depressive state of mind is what drove these people into jihad in the first place.
So rather than offer even marginal defense to a client of not being in sound mind when participating in criminal action, these lawyers would rather blame the government for mistreatment. Their personal agendas trump basic representation.
Posted by: john ||
04/30/2007 21:39 Comments ||
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Four people have been killed during a militant attack near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, said news reports. A security officer and three gunmen were killed in the attack on Sunday when rockets and small arms were shot at a unit of the Frontier Corps and Naray Dhoke village in the north of Waziristan. Naray Dhoke is right down the road from Okay Dhoke, natch.
North Waziristan is where the Taliban and allied factions are claimed to run bases for the campaign against foreign and government forces in Afghanistan. The Pakistani government last year concluded much criticized peace treaties with local tribes in a bid to contain the movement of Taliban fighters in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Naray Dhoke is right down the road from Okay Dhoke, natch.
Not far from Mairzydotes and Dozydotes, which so many Australians are so fond of.
Eight suspected militants and a civilian were killed in continuing separatist violence in Indian-held Kashmir, the army and police said on Sunday. Four of the militants were killed early on Sunday in a fierce gunbattle with troops in the northern district of Kupwara, army spokesman AK Mathur said. He said the fighting erupted when troops surrounded a forested hideout and asked the militants to surrender. They instead opened fire, which was returned killing four of them (militants), he said, adding the search operation was continuing in the area. Four more rebels were killed in two gunbattles with troops in the southern districts of Doda and Rajouri late on Saturday and early on Sunday, a police statement said. Police also said suspected militants shot dead a civilian in the southern district of Kulgam early on Sunday. We are ascertaining why he was targeted, police officer Fayaz Ahmed said. No rebel group has claimed responsibility.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Suspected tribal militants attacked an army check post at Tang Garhi in North Waziristan with heavy weapons early on Sunday, killing one soldier, sources told Daily Times on Sunday. One soldier was killed when unidentified men attacked the army check post at 2am on Sunday, the sources said. They said that the check post was located in Naridog, 20 kilometres north of Miranshah. The sources said that troops returned fire, but it was not clear if they hit anything the attackers had suffered any casualties.
AFP reported that three militants were killed when the troops deployed at Naridog check post returned fire. An intelligence officer also confirmed to the Associated Press that three militants were killed in the attack. Military officials were not immediately available to confirm the clash or casualties.
Meanwhile, suspected militants shot dead two men in South Waziristan for spying for the United States. The bodies were found in Jandola, gateway to South Waziristan, an administration official in Tank city told Daily Times. He said that a note found besides the two bodies accused them of spying for the US and of making fake currency.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Meanwhile, suspected militants shot dead two men in South Waziristan for spying for the United States.
Russian-made explosives were used in Saturdays suicide attack targeting Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao Khan, a police official said, as investigators launched a formal probe into the bombing. All the federal government agencies will assist the team, said Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani at a news conference in Peshawar after returning from the funerals of nine victims of the blast in Charsadda. He said that the bomber used eight to 10 kilograms of explosives and the death toll from the attack has risen to 28.
NWFP Additional Inspector General (Investigation) Fayaz Toru, who heads the joint investigation team, told Daily Times that the explosives used in the attack were known as MUV2 and were of Russian origin. Sherpao sustained minor injuries on both his legs from shrapnel in the attack. Toru told Reuters that the bomber appeared to be in his 30s. He is either an Afghan or belongs to our tribal areas, he said. The pattern of attack was similar to previous ones, all of which had links in our tribal areas.
Either Aftab Khan Sherpao or Leslie Nielson, we're not sure which.
Forensics experts sealed the crime scene and were collecting evidence. Evidence from the scene of the crime is essential and helpful in any investigation ... we have sealed off the area to keep all evidence intact, a forensics expert said. Police sources said body parts of the suspected bomber had been sent to Islamabad for forensic tests. Daily Times has learnt that the interior minister was not protected by electronic jamming equipment of the kinds provided to other VIPs in the Frontier province. AIG Toru said the equipment could have stopped the bomb.
A police explosives expert said the death toll would not have been so high had people not been standing when the explosion took place, as ball bearings and other shrapnel used in such explosives usually flies upwards.
Agencies add: Authorities were preparing a sketch of the suspect to help identify him, Reuters reported. Charsada police chief Firoz Shah told AFP that the investigators have found two Russian-made detonators and parts of the jacket the suicide attacker was wearing, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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US forces in Iraq have completely surrounded Kazemein province [district] in Baghdad after carrying out an incursion according to Iranian sources. US forces carried out a raid on the Sadr office in Kazemein and following a clash with al-Mahdi forces encircling the area. According to eye-witnesses, four civilians were killed in the US attacks. Some parts of the Kazemein market in Bab al-Morad Street near the holy shrines of Imam Musa Kazim (AS) and Imam Javad (AS) were on fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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A car bomb exploded Sunday night in the southern city of Basra, killing five people and wounding 10, police said. Two other car bombs were discovered in the area and dismantled by police.
Car bombs are rare in the city, located near the Iranian border in the oil-rich Shiite south of the country. However, tensions have been rising there due to political-infighting among Shiite groups. The explosion occurred in a western district of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said. Police responding to the explosion discovered the other two vehicles before they could explode. The blast occurred in an area containing several restaurants frequented by followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Presumably this story, per CentCom:
Basra, Iraq- An explosion in the Al Hiyyaniyah District of Basra City at approximately 2220 April 29, killed six civilians and wounded several others.
Coalition Forces indicate this explosion is likely to have been an accidental detonation during movement and transportation of explosives in an automobile.
The Iraqi capital awoke to a series of loud detonations on Sunday as US artillery pounded targets in southwest districts of the city. Eighteen rounds of artillery were fired from Forward Operating Base Falcon, said US spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver, without identifying the target of a salvo that could be heard 10 kilometres.
Occasional blasts could still be heard three hours after they began, and Garver could not say whether or not the operation would continue. Brigadier General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Iraqi forces involved in the security plan, told state television that the blasts were the result of a joint operation, but did not say what was causing them.
Separately, gunmen set fire to 15 fuel trucks heading to Anbar province on Sunday and kidnapped all trucks drivers, police said. Major Abdulghani al-Dulaimi said the trucks were transporting fuel from the Baiji refinery, north of Baghdad, to western Anbar.
US forces captured at least 72 suspects linked to Al Qaeda and seized bomb-making materials in a series of raids in two Iraqi provinces on Sunday.
US forces captured at least 72 suspects linked to Al Qaeda and seized bomb-making materials in a series of raids in two Iraqi provinces on Sunday, the military said. The raids were carried out in Anbar and Salaheddin provinces in an attempt to disrupt the Al Qaeda network, it said in a statement. In the biggest raid, the military netted 36 suspects with links to Al Qaeda in the town of Samarra in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad, the military said. Troops also found 20 five-gallon drums of nitric acid and other bomb-making materials near Garmah, close to the former rebel bastion of Fallujah in Anbar province of western Iraq.
A well-known news reader from Iraqi state television was shot and wounded on Sunday in front of her Baghdad home, her network said. Amal al-Muderas was attacked by unidentified gunmen in the mixed Khadraa district of western Baghdad, security sources said, apparently the latest victim of attacks aimed at state-run Iraqiya television. She was wounded and shes in the hospital, said a senior colleague at Muderass station, on condition of anonymity. Medics at the citys Al-Yarmukh hospital confirmed they were treating her.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Cool, if a bit puzzling. Perhaps now all those artillerymen/women can finally do their thing. Puzzling part is that bad guys would form up in a situation/place that would allow use of indirect fire. Let's hope it's a trend ....
#2
This should have been done long ago. The hell with going house to house causing the squirrels to scurry. Bring down the wrath of hell on these fools. They'll sort the issue internally in a rapid manner. If they can't reach consensus, we'll scoop the rubble into dump trucks later.
#4
Precisely, WE. Artillery's less discriminate nature is an excellent motivational tool for those who have previously proven reluctant to address the problem in front of them. Either they weed out the targets themselves or become one.
Nowhere are we obliged to meticulously sort through groups that allow our enemies to congregate in their midst. This is all part of compelling Islam to perform its own housecleaning. Should they prove less than enthusiastic, the Islamic baby will be thrown out with the jihadist bathwater.
#7
They must be using their new toys: The U.S. Army is gearing up to test, introduce or expand use of several new precision strike munitions, including the Global Positioning System-guided Excalibur projectiles, in Iraq starting next month, Army officials said April 24. At least 65 Excalibur munitions have been provided to U.S. forces in Iraq and up to 500 total are eyed for operations there, according to Roger Savage, the Army's cannon ammunition synchronization officer, and Ken Britt, Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) munitions source selection officer for precision strike.
Raytheon Missile Systems and BAE Systems-Bofors successfully fired 25 Excalibur munitions during an extensive First Article Test series in November. The initial variant ranges 16-18 miles, but the 15-pound weapon is expected to hit as far away as 40 miles.
It's a 155mm round they can drop within six inches of it's target.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/30/2007 7:30 Comments ||
Top||
#9
"...Look...you know Artillery, right? They see a building still standing, they take it as a personal insult."
- John Godey, The Talisman
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/30/2007 9:15 Comments ||
Top||
#10
"Should they prove less than enthusiastic, the Islamic baby will be thrown out with the jihadist bathwater." Zenster that is an artistic turn of the phrase. :)
#11
Don't forget to start disappearing photo-journalists. Fully half our problem is ceding the propaganda war to are enemies at the BBC, AFP, CNN, etc. Make this war the same non-happening as the goings on in Congo or Burma then we can start cleaning out the stables with the big broom. In my fantasy world, we would start by leveling "mosques" as the enemy compounds they so manifestly are.
We could win this so easily if only we would decide to fight.
Thank you very much, JohnQC. I rate it as one of my better efforts, second only to:
Skinless people living in a sandpaper world.
Muslims have an almost unique ability to simultaneously take offense whilst offending nearly everyone else around them. I would stand in awe of their ability to do so if it wasn't so damn offensive to begin with.
#15
Excalibur... sweet. Though I am suspicious of our ever greater reliance on GPS.
As for "muslims": We need to start taking greater and more violent offense in direct response and out of all proportion to "muslim" offense. That's the Chicago way.
#16
We need to start taking greater and more violent offense in direct response and out of all proportion to "muslim" offense.
Word, Excalibur. Massive and disproportionate retaliation will be required. Islam has yet to feel even a remote shred of the West's pain. Every Muslim atrocity must be repaid tenfold, if not a hundred or thousand so.
Citizens of the MME (Muslim Middle East), must eventually learn to revile the name of Mohammed. Enough of them must die whereby "Islam" finally comes to be seen as a curse upon their lives. Jihadists must end up being regarded as having brought doom and disaster to their entire region. Only then will the turning point have been reached. The sole remaining alternative is nuclear holocaust.
#1
Did they go in with a list of names or get lucky at a safe house or two? If these guys are connected, I'll bet AQI are biting their fingernails and $hitting bricks.
And Anbar and Salaheddin are still restive. Seems like all journos are on this verbal conspiracy. Or mayhaps it's laziness or underdeveloped vocabulary.
Yea, gorb, I suspect that AQ-boyz $hitting bricks may be fairly close to truth. Probably lists were compiled and made available through local sheiks.
#3
Yeah but this can't happen. Harry Reid and the 9 dhemmi dwarfs that are running for President said it can't happen. The surge won't work. We are losing. Pull out. Surrender.
#8
Personally, I would prefer a story that says that US military killed 72 Al-Qaeda people. Now we have to feed, house and take good care of them. Of course taking good care of them means feeding them better than a wealthy Iraqi, making sure they know which way Mecca is, giving them an untouched-by-infidel-hands Quran, etc.
#9
Nice to see this happening in Anbar and Salaheddin. It means that the course of events in these areas is going in the direction we want it more and more. Now we need to see the same thing done in Diyala, and fast.
Armed clashes broke out in Kadhmiya district in northern Baghdad Sunday after an American force stormed Shiitte cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr's office and arrested some of the people inside. A source at the Iraqi police told KUNA US forces exchanged fire shots with the guards of Al-Sadr's office. He said the guards resisted the American troops. American army vehicles surrounded the office and the forces started shooting at it then stormed it and arrested the people inside, said the source. Locals at Khadmiya and eyewitnesses said the exchange of fire lasted for some an hour. They reported that warnings, through loud speakers of mosques, to the citizens that the American forces were surrounding Al-Sadr's office.
#4
If Maliki weren't so worried about the US bailing out, would he be more likely to keep them in jail? Didn't someone talk to Maliki about the time we came up with new ROEs and tell him to knock that $hit off?
#7
Maliki is more likely to sign their death warrants, than have the sadrists released. The recent resignation of the mooqie bloc, the Iraqi version of nasrullah thugs, from the ruling shia coalition, has been liberating for Maliki. I don't think he's willing to play nice with these Iranian agent provacateurs anymore.
An al Qaeda leader called on the Islamist Hamas group to fight Israel with "bombs and fire" in an Internet video posted on Sunday, days after militants launched rockets into southern Israel breaking a ceasefire.
"Where is revenge, where are the bombs, where is the fire?" Abu Yahya al-Libi asked members of the military wing of Hamas in a video posted on a Web site used by Islamist militant groups. "Your loyalty to the blood of your predecessors, those loyal men, can only be through strict commitment to path of jihad ... and rejecting any other way," he said in the undated video.
Al Qaeda, which spearheads a militant campaign against the United States and its allies, views the Sunni Muslim Hamas as a moderate group that has compromised the rights of Palestinians for political gains. In March, al Qaeda's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, accused Hamas of serving U.S. interests through a power-sharing agreement with the secular Fatah group.
Libi, who is believed to have escaped from a U.S. jail in Afghanistan in 2005, said it was the duty of al Qaeda to give advice to Hamas. Libi scolded Hamas leaders for embracing democracy and establishing ties with "infidel" Russia and Shi'ite Iran. Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in Jan. 2006. "Nationalism and Palestinian unity became the ground of your relations ... tarnishing your group," he said. "Those listening to your statements can no longer differentiate between you and secular groups."
Libi also criticised Hamas leaders for what he described as a policy of "begging" and for visiting Russia and Iran to seek support in the face of a Western blockade against the Hamas-led Palestinian government for refusing to recognise Israel.
#3
Napalm sucks up oxygen, too, but after you use it, there are usually fewer islamidiots left around to cause trouble. Using it on the entire Gaza Strip would be a little problematic, but then, that's what artillery and tanks are for.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/30/2007 13:20 Comments ||
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#5
Napalm sucks up oxygen, too, but after you use it, there are usually fewer islamidiots left around to cause trouble.
But the terrorists not breathing any more will, over time, more than makes up for the oxygen used by the napalm. So in the end there is absolutely no downside to using napalm.
Suspected Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand killed two Buddhist villagers, beheading one of them, and left a note saying the attack was revenge for a deadly weekend bombing at a mosque, police said Monday.
The two burned bodies, one of them headless, were found on a road in Pattani province's Nong Chik district, said police Lt. Natachai Janpho. He said they were apparently killed Sunday night. A spray-painted message on the road near the bodies said: "This is revenge for Hutae Bongor," Natachai said. Hutae Bongor is a nearby town where the mosque bombing Saturday night killed a Muslim man and injured three others.
The message suggested that the attackers believed the culprits in the mosque attack were members of the security forces of Thailand's Buddhist-dominated government. However, authorities said they suspected the mosque attackers were Muslim militants bent on stirring up communal tension.
In a separate case of violence Monday, a bomb was detonated at a roadside restaurant in Narathiwat's Sungai Kolok district, injuring one worker. The bomb was hidden in a carry-on bag that belonged to a customer who left the restaurant before the detonation, said police Lt. Tem Intasara. It was triggered by a mobile phone that was later found near the scene, he said.
The 30-year man and his 14-year-old nephew were killed in a Muslim village in Pattani. The head was found 5km away at a government school where three bombs were planted at the entrance, police Lieutenant Colonel Yuthakan Plienpoe told Reuters. "They wanted to trap us with these bombs," Yuthakan said by telephone. Mobile phone service was switched off in the area to prevent the bombs being set off by phone signals.
#2
Rush spoke about the troubles in Thailand this morning on his 1-minute intro. That is a good thing. I doubt that one American in 100 knows anything about what is going on there.
Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebel planes bombed two oil facilities near the capital on Sunday, causing minor damage and tripping air defences that plunged the city into darkness, the air force said. Colombo residents said they heard explosions and gunfire as the military responded to the air raid around 1:50 am (2020 GMT). Hospital officials said six people were admitted for injuries after the attacks, and two were in intensive care. The early morning attack was only the third air strike ever by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE.
They dropped four bombs ... there was no human damage, a defence ministry spokesman said. Two bombs landed in an area called Muthurajawela, north of the city, one damaging a water pipeline at a crude oil pumping station and the other striking a fire hut at a Shell gas facility, he said.
There was an explosion and a fire. There has been some damage, power failure ... (But) there has been no damage to our storage tanks or pipeline, said Rimoe Saldin, finance director at Shell Gas. The fire was brought under control in about 45 minutes. Shell was still assessing the extent of the damage, he said.
A customer service representative at Shell Company of Sri Lanka, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, said the bomb struck at Shell terminals, which is part of the port. Two other rebel bombs landed near the Kolonnawa oil refining facility 5 km north of Colombo, the military said. A Tamil Tiger spokesman said two aircraft carried out the raids, hitting both targets before returning safely to base.
Residents said power to the city had been cut as Sri Lankas military went on alert when radar detected suspect aircraft. I can hear gunfire. I can see flashes going up into the sky above the city, a Reuters witness said. Residents said they had heard two explosions. Some residents said they saw gunfire being directed at a plane flying overhead. A Reuters correspondent at Colombo international airport said passengers had been told to get off their flights but were later told to re-embark.
Security alert: After the attack, air force jets struck back, bombing targets in the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi, the defence ministry said. Air force planes also hit Tiger targets about an hour before the air strike near Colombo, it said. The security alert followed a similar one late on Thursday when Sri Lankan authorities temporarily closed the international airport after reports suspicious planes were seen flying south along the coast.
That air raid scare occurred two days after planes from the Tamil Tiger rebels newly unveiled air wing dropped bombs on a military position in the north, killing six people. The rebels first air strike was on the air force base next to Colombo airport at the end of March, and it took the military by surprise. Analysts believe the Tamil Tigers air force consists of just two to five light propeller planes assembled from pieces smuggled into rebel-held territory over time.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Syria has built a fortified complex buried deep underground and cloaked in secrecy to manufacture and store ballistic missiles capable of striking Israel, an Israeli newspaper said on Monday. The complex includes 30 reinforced concrete bunkers, production facilities, development laboratories and command posts, the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot quoted "foreign experts" as saying, without specifying its location.
I'm sure it's a complete secret, heh, heh...
The "missile city" houses mainly Scud missiles capable of reaching anywhere in Israel. Given its weak air power, Damascus is boosting its arsenal of surface-to-surface missiles and protecting them in the complex, Yediot said.
Right. Buried fixed static locations are totally safe.
According to the paper, Syria has 200 Scud-B missiles, 60 Scud-C and a certain number of North Korean Scud-D missiles with a range of 700 kilometres (434 miles), and has developed chemical warheads for all its Scuds. The chemical warfare agents are stored in a separate facility, Yediot quoted the foreign experts as saying. It also said that Iran recently supplied Syria with around 100 Chinese shore-to-sea C-802 missiles -- the same missile that Hezbollah used to hit an Israeli warship during last year's Lebanon war.
In March, military and government sources told AFP that Syria had positioned thousands of rockets on its border with Israel, as part of indications that Damascus may be preparing for future "low-intensity warfare."
Lob a chemical tipped Scud into Israel and see how fast it goes from "low-intensity" to "glow-in-the-dark"
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made peace overtures in recent months to Israel but the Jewish state rejected them, saying Damascus must first stop supporting militant groups in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Peace talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in 2000, mainly because of deadlock over the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1981.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/30/2007 08:27 ||
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#1
/ripley
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
/ripley
#3
But everyone knows it is impossible for middle eastern despots to possess chemical weapons. Clearly, this is a dodge meant to distract us from the real threat to Syria; rising sea levels.
#4
I wonder if Syria is really that stupid. But, it seems that arabs rarely learn from their mistakes. So, go ahead Syria. Make an easily targeted and taken out bunker complex. Put all your WMDs in there along with your leadership. It is safe. Really. We have nothing that we can give Israel to take it out. Truly.
#6
Underground military factories worked out so well for the third reich... (NOT!)
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/30/2007 13:37 Comments ||
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#7
I hope they are dumb enough to put all their eggs in one basket, but I doubt it. Syria was under suspicion of being one of several rogue nations working together assembling the jihadi arsenal piecemeal. Khan's fingerprints went from Northern Europe to Malaysia, Libya and other parts of Africa, back to Pakistan where the Nork's and Iran picked up their part of this nefarious conspiracy. I'm convinced Syrian bunkers not only hid the missing Iraqi WMD's, accompanied by the Ba'athist officials still residing there and orchestrating the insurgency in comfort, but that Syria may have been the distribution center and have already shipped missiles or chemicals out to parts unknown to terrorists. They have good ports and Iraq didn't.
Also, the Saudi bust showed weapons and explosives in PVC pipe and buried and the Israeli's have found missles under bags of cement on a barge. Hariri's IED went boom, seemingly from under the street, and there was previous road construction in the area. Construction materiels are great camouflage, disguising heavy loads and elongated lengths, but not arousing suspicion.
#6
That's gotta be some kind of miracle fabric, like spider silk. The tensile strength of most natural and synthetic fibers couldn't stand against that kind of stress.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/30/2007 12:01 Comments ||
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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 raid on a suspected suicide bombing cell in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday left four militants and two civilians dead, the coalition said, as protesting locals claimed only civilians were killed.
Security services ongoing investigations on April 11 attacks led to the arrest of a candidate to undertake the kamikaze attacks. The concerned person is 20-year old, called Mustapha and originated from southern Algiers, he has revealed that he has prepared with four other people the attacks. Sources revealed that the security services are inquiring about the young and referred his case to Sidi Mhamed court examining magistrate who remanded him under custody to be tried at the criminal court.
Five Britons were found guilty of plotting to carry out al-Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain potentially killing hundreds at targets ranging from nightclubs to trains and a shopping centre. The gang planned to use 600kg of ammonium nitrate fertiliser to make explosives to be used in bombings in revenge for Britain's support of the United States in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, prosecutors said.
Six men, including a Muslim named 
Four people have been killed during a militant attack near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, said news reports. A security officer and three gunmen were killed in the attack on Sunday when rockets and small arms were shot at a unit of the Frontier Corps and Naray Dhoke village in the north of Waziristan. 
Eight suspected militants and a civilian were killed in continuing separatist violence in Indian-held Kashmir, the army and police said on Sunday. Four of the militants were killed early on Sunday in a fierce gunbattle with troops in the northern district of Kupwara, army spokesman AK Mathur said. He said the fighting erupted when troops surrounded a forested hideout and asked the militants to surrender. They instead opened fire, which was returned killing four of them (militants), he said, adding the search operation was continuing in the area. Four more rebels were killed in two gunbattles with troops in the southern districts of Doda and Rajouri late on Saturday and early on Sunday, a police statement said. Police also said suspected militants shot dead a civilian in the southern district of Kulgam early on Sunday. We are ascertaining why he was targeted, police officer Fayaz Ahmed said. No rebel group has claimed responsibility.
Russian-made explosives were used in Saturdays suicide attack targeting Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao Khan, a police official said, as investigators launched a formal probe into the bombing. All the federal government agencies will assist the team, said Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani at a news conference in Peshawar after returning from the funerals of nine victims of the blast in Charsadda. He said that the bomber used eight to 10 kilograms of explosives and the death toll from the attack has risen to 28.
US forces in Iraq have completely surrounded Kazemein province [district] in Baghdad after carrying out an incursion according to Iranian sources. US forces carried out a raid on the Sadr office in Kazemein and following a clash with al-Mahdi forces encircling the area. According to eye-witnesses, four civilians were killed in the US attacks. Some parts of the Kazemein market in Bab al-Morad Street near the holy shrines of Imam Musa Kazim (AS) and Imam Javad (AS) were on fire.
A car bomb exploded Sunday night in the southern city of Basra, killing five people and wounding 10, police said. Two other car bombs were discovered in the area and dismantled by police. 
The Iraqi capital awoke to a series of loud detonations on Sunday as US artillery pounded targets in southwest districts of the city. Eighteen rounds of artillery were fired from Forward Operating Base Falcon, said US spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver, without identifying the target of a salvo that could be heard 10 kilometres. 
The US military in Iraq says its forces have captured at least 72 suspects linked to Al-Qaeda and seized bomb-making materials in a series of raids.
Armed clashes broke out in Kadhmiya district in northern Baghdad Sunday after an American force stormed Shiitte cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr's office and arrested some of the people inside. A source at the Iraqi police told KUNA US forces exchanged fire shots with the guards of Al-Sadr's office. He said the guards resisted the American troops. American army vehicles surrounded the office and the forces started shooting at it then stormed it and arrested the people inside, said the source. Locals at Khadmiya and eyewitnesses said the exchange of fire lasted for some an hour. They reported that warnings, through loud speakers of mosques, to the citizens that the American forces were surrounding Al-Sadr's office.
An al Qaeda leader called on the Islamist Hamas group to fight Israel with "bombs and fire" in an Internet video posted on Sunday, days after militants launched rockets into southern Israel breaking a ceasefire.
Libi, who is believed to have escaped from a U.S. jail in Afghanistan in 2005, said it was the duty of al Qaeda to give advice to Hamas. Libi scolded Hamas leaders for embracing democracy and establishing ties with "infidel" Russia and Shi'ite Iran. Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in Jan. 2006. "Nationalism and Palestinian unity became the ground of your relations ... tarnishing your group," he said. "Those listening to your statements can no longer differentiate between you and secular groups."
Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebel planes bombed two oil facilities near the capital on Sunday, causing minor damage and tripping air defences that plunged the city into darkness, the air force said. Colombo residents said they heard explosions and gunfire as the military responded to the air raid around 1:50 am (2020 GMT). Hospital officials said six people were admitted for injuries after the attacks, and two were in intensive care. The early morning attack was only the third air strike ever by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE. 
