BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan Afghan national security forces, supported by coalition forces, are currently engaged in a firefight with a platoon-size group of militants west of the Helmand River in Nahr Surkh District, Helmand province.
ANSF and coalition forces have received small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenade and indirect mortar fire from the militants.
Coalition forces witnessed insurgent indirect fire landing in a nearby civilian compound. There are no reports of civilian casualties at this time.
This is a fluid and rapidly-changing situation, ANSF and coalition forces are doing everything in their power to minimize the effects on civilians in the area, said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, coalition spokesman. However, extremists have continued to show a disregard for the safety of Afghans in the area.
The firefight has been ongoing for more than two hours and coalition forces are engaging the militants with direct fire to minimize the chance of hurting innocent Afghans.
#1
taliban generating civi causualties on purpose so the propaganda mill can demonize the west. they must be disapointed with the amount of collateral damage the coalition is doing so they are firing on the civilians themselves to ensure that their allies in the press will report on the incident. we all know that it will be NATO/US at fault for the death of the fuzzy ducks and bunnies on this.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
07/07/2007 12:42 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Taliban is being harbored by the Opium producers. Helmand district is the worst producer of opium in the world. There are no civilians in Helmand.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Fierce fighting broke out around Afghanistan on Friday, with battles in three separate regions killing more than 100 militants, part of a cycle of rapidly rising violence five years into the U.S.-led effort to defeat the Taliban. Some sort of good natured competition among coalition forces?
They keep putting their faces in the way, eventually we'll bruise our knuckles.
The governor of northeastern Kunar province said villagers were claiming that airstrikes had killed dozens of civilians, though he said he could not confirm the report. Somebody other than the terrorists ought to go in and define civilians for them.
Civilians. n. 1. In the rest of the world, non-combatants, people who are not party to a fight. 2. In Afghanistan and certain other locations, camp-followers, people who follow one of the parties to a fight.
The fighting in the south, west and northeast continues a trend of sharply rising bloodshed the last five weeks, among the deadliest periods here since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Deadliest for who?
More than 1,000 people were killed in insurgency-related violence in June alone, including 700 militants and 200 civilians. More than 3,100 people have been killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count based on information from Western and Afghan officials. Around 4,000 people died in violence last year. Stay back from your keyboards lest your tears short them out again.
Dreaded summer offensive off to a rousing start, eh?
U.S.-led coalition and NATO spokesmen on Friday emphasized that ground commanders had evaluated the terrain to prevent civilians casualties, though Kunar Gov. Shalizai Dedar said villagers had reported that 10 civilians were killed in an initial airstrike, and that a second strike killed about 30 people who were trying to bury the dead. Families call them civilians . . .
Dedar said he could not confirm the reports of civilian deaths but that he was not rejecting their validity either. He said around 60 militants died in the battle. . . . while everyone else calls them terrorists.
U.S. and NATO officials say Taliban militants threaten villagers into claiming that attacks killed civilians. Did we miss a few?
"There were some number of insurgents that were killed. We have no reason to believe that any civilians were killed at this time," said NATO spokesman Maj. John Thomas. He said soldiers called in airstrikes on "positively identified enemy firing positions" in a remote area. The rule is that if you can pry the gun out of the militant's hands after he dies, you get to call him a civilian.
Civilian deaths have been a growing problem for international forces here, threatening to derail support for the Western mission. President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly implored forces to take care to prevent such deaths. Quit it Karzai, you ain't helpin'. We go, you go.
Both a U.N. and the AP count of civilian deaths this year show that U.S. and NATO forces have caused more civilian deaths this year than Taliban fighters have. UN? AP? Hahaha!
Meanwhile, a roadside blast struck a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan, wounding four alliance soldiers Saturday.
The NATO convoy was attacked west of Kandahar city, and the four wounded soldiers were medically evacuated to a nearby military hospital, said Maj. John Thomas, a NATO spokesman.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, a purported Taliban spokesman, said that the convoy was struck by a suicide bomber.
An AP reporter at the site of the blast said that those wounded were Canadian soldiers.
In the country's east, two NATO soldiers died and several others were wounded during an operation Thursday, the alliance said.
The alliance did not release the soldiers' nationalities or the location where the clash and the bombing took place. Most foreign troops in the east are American.
The latest NATO casualties raised the number of foreign soldiers killed this year to at least 105.
In the south, militants attacked two police vehicles with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades overnight, and U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces responded with artillery fire and airstrikes in what the coalition described as a "sparsely populated area" in Uruzgan province.
Gen. Zahir Azimi said 33 Taliban fighters were killed. The coalition reported "no indications" of civilian casualties and said no coalition or Afghan forces were killed or wounded. Allahu akbar!
And in Farah, a western province bordering Iran that has seen little violence until this year, insurgents attacked an Afghan security patrol from fortified positions, wounding five Afghan soldiers, the coalition said.
Afghan and coalition forces, using gunfire and airstrikes, killed "over 30" insurgents, it said. The coalition also said a ground commander "carefully evaluated risk of collateral damage" before firing. Allahu akbar!
"It is important to note that many targets were not bombed or fired on due to (Afghan) and coalition force precautions against causing collateral damage," said Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman. Too bad this has to be said explicitly.
#1
Both a U.N. and the AP count of civilian deaths this year show that U.S. and NATO forces have caused more civilian deaths this year than Taliban fighters have.
Based on what? The civilians the Taliban admit they killed? Or do the AP and UN divvie them up - "Two for the infidels, one for the Freedom Fighters"?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/07/2007 8:20 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Hopefully the locals will soon realize that having Taliban around is a death sentence, so it is always better to drive them away.
#3
More than 1,000 people were killed in insurgency-related violence in June alone, including 700 militants and 200 civilians.
Who the hell were the other 100+? Aliens?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/07/2007 11:40 Comments ||
Top||
#4
IIRC if we kill a civilian, NATO will give the grieving family money. This creates a built in incentive to claim civilian deaths whenever there's any combat.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/07/2007 11:51 Comments ||
Top||
#5
If them civilians wouldn't shoot at our boys they wouldn't end up dead.
#6
If you read the ISAF website, you'll see that many of the civilian deaths are due to tailgating or some such. I would respectfully suggest, based on reviewing press releases over there for a long time for Terrorist Death Watch that NATO forces can be quick on the trigger. They may also not take as much care in calling in airstrikes or arty as our troops do. The Afghans have a little bit of a beef with NATO.
#9
Our people are worth their weight in gold - Afghanis are worth their weight in sand. We're not in Afghanistan to please the "civilians", but to put a stop to the taliwhackers. If the civilians don't want to be whacked along with them, stay away from the taliwhackers. We're at war, and it's about da$$ed time we started acting like it. Otherwise, we're going to end up losing, which is a very bad thing.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/07/2007 15:01 Comments ||
Top||
Morocco raised its terror alert to its highest level Friday, citing a "serious threat of a terrorist act," the Interior Ministry said. The North African nation's top security officials met Friday evening and decided to raise the alert level, ordering security organs to "extreme mobilization," the state news agency MAP said, citing a ministry statement. No details about the threat were reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
#1
Busload of Spanish tourists just arrived?
Posted by: ed ||
07/07/2007 0:21 Comments ||
Top||
Authorities in Yemen have confirmed that an Egyptian man killed in a gunfight was the mastermind of Monday's suicide bomb attack that killed nine people.
Uhhh... Okay. He sounds... brilliant.
The Egyptian -- identified as Ahmed Bassiouni Dewidar -- was killed Thursday during a gunfight with police in the capital, Sanaa. At least five security officers were wounded in the shootout.
Ohoh! Brilliant and a crack shot! And now dead. That guys is really multitalented.
Seven Spaniards and two Yemenis were killed Monday when a suicide bomber ran his car into a convoy transporting tourists to an ancient temple linked to the Queen of Sheba. Yemeni authorities suspect the attackers were members of al-Qaida. At least 20 other suspects in the bombing have been arrested.
This article starring:
AHMED BASIUNI DEWIDAR
al-Qaeda in Yemen
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
He was the mastermind's decoy. The mastermind slipped out the back in a burqa and a whalebone corset to disguise his gut.
#2
Follows the KSA model - make sure your suspect is captured dead, not alive, so he can't reveal government accomplices. Or identify some guy who gets killed as the terrorist plotter so the case is closed and the heat is off.
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) recovered ten bombs from a newspaper stall
Slogan: "Putting the 'dead' in deadtree media since 2006!"
at Daulatpur here on Thursday night. Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-6, Khulna, went to the spot near Daulatpur bus stand at around 11:15pm, unlocked the stall and found the bombs kept in a bag on the shelf. No one was arrested in connection with the recovery of bombs as of 6:00pm yesterday.
Intelligence agencies have stepped up surveillance all over the city and district following recovery of the bombs. The elite force also recovered a pipe gun from Bastuhara Colony (slum) ground under Khalishpur Police Station at about 6:00am yesterday. Meanwhile, the law enforcement agencies have intensified their drives in Khulna district to arrest the listed criminals, including the outlaws and Islamist militants. "We are trying hard to arrest the Islamist militants and extremists scattered in disguise at different places in the city and district," said Acting Police Commissioner Raushan Ara.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
And also no drive to (fill in your favorite spot here) recover (arms cache, pipeguns [pipeguns?]) with the obligatory shootout with 'as if they were never there' accomplices whilst the main miscreant bites it.....
Looks like a bit of diversity in the workplace, RAB-style t'me..
An Iraqi-trained doctor appeared in a London court on Saturday in connection with failed car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow. Bilal Abdulla, 27, was charged with conspiracy to cause explosions. Dressed in a white sweatshirt, he spoke only to confirm his name and address.
No bail was applied for and he will reappear at London's Old Bailey criminal court on July 27. Abdulla is the first person to be charged over the suspected al Qaeda-linked plot in which eight Middle Eastern and Indian medics have been arrested, seven in Britain and one in Australia. Abdulla was arrested after a jeep crashed into the terminal building at Glasgow airport last Saturday.
The father of another suspect, Kafeel Ahmed, 27, told the Times of India on Saturday he had identified his son from television coverage. Ahmed has been in hospital with critical burns since the Glasgow attack -- witnesses say he set both himself and the crashed vehicles on fire. "When we saw the footage of a person being carried to the hospital, followed by the blast and the police suspecting him to be the suicide bomber, we identified that he was our son," their father Maqbool Ahmed told the paper from Bangalore.
Kafeel's brother Sabeel, 26, was arrested in Liverpool, northwest England, later the same evening. His father said Sabeel had been allowed by British police to call him every day since his arrest. "Sabeel said he was treated well by the police and he has been cooperating with them," Ahmed said. "We enquired about Kafeel but he refused to speak about him or give any details," Ahmed added.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday that investigations were "getting to the bottom" of the cell behind the failed bombings.
Two car bombs primed to explode in London's bustling theatre and nightclub district were discovered the day before the Glasgow attack. Although the London and Scottish attacks failed, they posed a test of nerve for Brown's new government in the first week after he replaced Tony Blair on June 27. For four days, security officials raised Britain's national threat warning to its highest level, before lowering it one notch on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 12:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Tawhid
Akhmed Dakayev, Chechnya's deputy interior minister, has been shot and killed by rebels in the capital Grozny on Friday, local officials said. "He had gone with his group to check out a report on the presence of the Wahhabite Yunis Akhmadov" in a house in Grozny's Minutka district, Ramzan Magamedov, Grozny's deputy mayor said.
What's a deputy interior minister doing leading a police operation? Doesn't he have minions for this?
Magamedov was unable to say whether any of the rebels, referred to as "Wahhabites" even when they do not belong to the Islamic-led branch of the rebellion, had been killed in Friday's operation.
Early on Saturday a Russian army convoy came under fire in the mountainous south of Chechnya, Interfax reported citing the interior ministry. A sergeant was critically wounded and an operation had been mounted to hunt down those responsible, Interfax said.
Attacks on Russian federal troops and local officials loyal to Moscow remain frequent in the breakaway Caucasus province, despite Moscow declaring victory in a second war to crush the separatist rebellion there.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 11:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Wahabbites should be hunted down wherever they exist, and exported back to the Empty Quarter of Soddy aRabida - by air. They're nothing but trouble, wherever they are.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/07/2007 15:11 Comments ||
Top||
TWO West Australian hospitals have been raided and a further five foreign doctors questioned as Australian inquiries connected to the foiled United Kingdom terrorist attacks spread to two more states.
WA police yesterday interviewed and released four Indian doctors working on 457 skilled migrant visas after raiding the Kalgoorlie and Royal Perth hospitals, along with two more undisclosed premises. Another overseas doctor in New South Wales was interviewed by counter-terrorism police yesterday. Federal police also are combing through 31,000 documents some of them in foreign languages seized in the raids, including on laptop computers.
Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said several items had been taken by police for further examination, including mobile phones and laptop computers. "The linkages are with people who are known to each other and that's prompting the further inquiries," he said. "This is not about doctors. These are people who are of similar nationalities, and the warrants that were executed in WA were in Kalgoorlie and Royal Perth Hospital."
* Two WA hospitals raided
* Four doctors questioned
* Overseas doc interviewed by police
* Police combing through documents
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty said the doctors interviewed by police were foreign-trained and had worked in Britain. He urged Australians not to be concerned about the medical profession. "What we want to do is just reassure people this is not an investigation into the medical practitioners per se. It's an investigation in support of the investigation by the London Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism command," Mr Keelty said.
Mr Ruddock said the AFP and WA police had been working in close cooperation and were liaising closely with other Australian authorities and the UK. "It should be emphasised that a presumption of innocence exists in every police inquiry. No one has been arrested, charged or detained in relation to these inquiries," he said. "There is no suggestion of any threat to the people of WA and the Australian Government has received no information which would result in an increased threat.
"As this is an ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further."
The AFP has been given until Monday night to hold Dr Haneef in Queensland during which time it will peruse a huge number of documents seized during the Australian raids. "Obviously (the documents) take some time to work through, particularly if they're in a foreign language," Mr Keelty said.
WA Premier Alan Carpenter said he did not want to see a backlash against overseas-trained doctors. "There is nothing that has been presented to us by the police that would lead us to believe that we have got issues with our overseas trained doctors, Indian-trained or otherwise," he said. "I would not like to see a common slur against our Indian or other overseas-trained doctors because of what's happening in Britain or what's going on with the investigation in Brisbane.
#3
"It should be emphasised that a presumption of innocence exists in every police inquiry. No one has been arrested, charged or detained in relation to these inquiries," he said.
I should be emphasized that if we want to live and be free we must make a presumption of guilt toward muslims. I do not trust them any more than I would give my home telephone number to the Scientologists.
Explosions and heavy gunfire stopped Islamist politicians from entering a besieged Islamabad mosque on Saturday, on a mission to persuade a radical cleric to send out children among his hundreds of militant followers. The five-member delegation of religious conservatives blamed security forces for opening fire, when the cleric had already given them an all-clear to enter the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid.
Hundreds of troops have besieged the fortified compound housing the mosque and a girls' madrasa since Tuesday when months of tension erupted into clashes. There were unconfirmed accounts of the mosque's defenders burying more bodies on Saturday, but so far the death toll is 20.
"Security forces are not allowing us to go in and they have opened fire," said member of parliament Samia Raheel Qazi. "Whatever happens now, the government will be responsible."
Figures he stuck his face into this. He's the Jesse Jackson of Paklannd.
Mosque cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the leader of a Taliban-style movement, has declared he would choose "martyrdom" rather than agree to unconditional surrender, and has rejected government accusations that he is holding women and children as human shields. Ghazi said he and the followers would lay down their weapons but would never accept arrest. "I fully stand by my position, there's no question of arrests," Ghazi told Reuters early on Saturday, speaking over the crack of rifle fire. He said three students were killed on Friday.
In another development, soldiers were deployed in many places, replacing paramilitary troops who have been at the forefront of the siege. Smoke and the orange glow of fire rose from the mosque early on Saturday during a heavy exchange of fire. One member of the security forces was killed, said witnesses who saw the body, although authorities denied any casualties. Water, gas and power to the mosque have been cut and food was said to be getting scarce.
About 1,200 students left the mosque after the clashes began but only a trickle of about 20 came out on Friday, among them a boy who said older students were forcing young ones to stay.
Officials say they don't know how many are left in there, though they put the number of hard-core militants at 50 to 60, while Ghazi has said there are 1,900 students in the compound, and his elder brother, who was captured trying to escape in a burqa in Wednesday, put the number at 850, including 600 females.
Authorities say they have blasted holes in the compound's walls to enable people to flee. Security forces have also occupied another city madrasa affiliated with the Lal Masjid.
TENSIONS RISE
Tensions began rising in January when students launched an anti-vice campaign to impose strict Islamic law. They kidnapped people they accused of prostitution, intimidated shopkeepers selling Western videos, abducted police and threatened suicide attacks if they were suppressed.
Moderate politicians and the media had urged President Pervez Musharraf to crack down on the Red Mosque radicals far earlier, and despite the bloodshed newspaper editorials have shown broad support for the decision to finally use force. Musharraf has not commented publicly on the siege but has urged security agencies to allow time to get children out.
The Red Mosque movement is symptomatic of the religious extremism seeping into Pakistani cities from tribal border areas.
On Friday, gunmen fired from a roof-top under the flight path of Islamabad's military airport as Musharraf was flying off to inspect flood damage in the south. An intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the shots were an attempt on the president's life. The government refused to jump to such conclusions. But, officials privately say the shooter clearly meant to target Musharraf's aircraft, and while the attack appeared amateurish the worrying aspect was that the would-be assassins knew the president was flying that morning.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 11:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Popcorn?
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
07/07/2007 12:56 Comments ||
Top||
#2
No high ground for sniper practice?
Posted by: Steven ||
07/07/2007 14:43 Comments ||
Top||
Pakistani investigators are probing suspected links between an attempt to shoot the plane carrying Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, and a siege at a mosque in the capital Islamabad. Investigators said on Saturday that they were also trying to find out whether a militant "mole" within the Pakistani administration leaked the information about the departure of Musharraf's aircraft, which is always kept top secret. Shots were fired at the plane as it left a military airbase near Islamabad on Friday. Police found two anti-aircraft guns and a machine gun on the roof of a nearby house.
'Hurried attack'
The officials said they were looking at the possibility that militants planned Friday's attack prior to the crackdown on the Red Mosque, in which 19 people have died, but brought it forward. "Investigators are probing whether the attack on the president's plane may have some links to the crackdown against extremists hiding in the Red Mosque," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Because the identities of those who lived in the house and their links to suspected militant groups are unknown, the investigation remains "open-ended'. But an experienced and senior anti-terrorism official said it appeared that the attackers were in a hurry. "The site and the method were of their choice, but because of the events of Red Mosque they might have advanced the plan and faltered," the official told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 11:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Investigators said on Saturday that they were also trying to find out whether a militant "mole" within the Pakistani administration leaked the information about the departure of Musharraf's aircraft, which is always kept top secret.
How many ISI officers does Pervez have on his staff?
#3
Someone told me that when Musharraf was in New York for his last trip to the UN he said that the Secret Service was more serious about his protection than his own men were. I don't know if he said it or not, but I remember thinking it was a friendly, humorous thing to say. Now, not so much.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/07/2007 13:30 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I'm surprised Perv doesn't use Blackwater or Triple Canopy.
RAIPUR Police have recovered 100kg of explosives from a forest hideout of Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh, officials said yesterday. The explosives were seized late on Thursday from a forest in Rajnandgaon district that borders Maharashtra. "The explosives are very powerful and are basically used for making country-made bombs," Amit Kumar, Rajnandgaon district superintendent, told IANS. Police sources said the seizure was the biggest in the state.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/07/2007 00:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
MMM I wonder if the Echelon countries are using it's capabilities to actually help the worldwide war on terror.
the various anti-capitalist groups and slammers and communists do seem to be coalescing; so this seems to be a good move IMHO.
PESHAWAR A Waziristan tribe killed four suspected Taliban militants while rescuing a Pakistan Army captain who was abducted at gunpoint as the body of a government official was found on Friday in North Waziristan, officials and tribal sources said. Lashkar, an armed group of the Dirdoni tribe, chased the militants after they abducted Captain Faisal Islam, a trainer at Razmak Cadet College in North Waziristan.
The ensuing crossfire left four militants killed. Islam and two Lashkar men were also injured. Islam was later airlifted for medical treatment. The tribe immediately formed the Lashkar as they knew of the incident and intercepted the militants before they could reach their stronghold, an official said wishing not to be named. The rescue operation comes on the heels of the killing of Mehboob Khan, the brother of government officer Rehmatullah Wazir. Wazir served in South Waziristan as assistant political agent in 2004. Mehboob, a clerk at the Food Control Department in Bannu, was kidnapped on Thursday. His beheaded body was found on Friday near Edak village, 20 kilometres east of Miranshah. He belonged to the Dirdoni tribe and the killing, according to senior government officials, could spark a Wana-like uprising against foreign militants and their local protectors.
AP adds: Two tribesmen were also killed in the shootout, said an official on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
CHAKDARA: Four Pakistan Army troops, including a major and a lieutenant, were killed on Friday in an improvised explosive device attack on a military convoy in Dir a stronghold of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the banned Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi. Four soldiers have been martyred in an IED explosion, ISPR Director General Maj Gen Waheed Arshad told Daily Times. He, however, denied that the attack was a reaction to the standoff with the Lal Masjid brigade in Islamabad.
Eyewitnesses said army helicopters airlifted the injured soldiers and the convoy later moved to its destination. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. According to the local people the outlawed TNSM could be behind the blast.
We are concerned at the situation that may turn Lal Masjid-like, Shakirullah Khan, a trader union leader said. The attack is the second such in as many days and comes after cleric Fazlullah in Swat gave a call to his supporters for jihad on his illegal FM radio channel following the action against two Lal Masjid mullahs and their supporters.
Rockets were also fired at a military base in Khyber Agency on Thursday. No major damage was reported. Six soldiers were killed in a suicide attack in Bannu frontier region near North Waziristan on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, a police constable and four civilians were killed in a remote-controlled explosion aiming district police officer in Mingora. Sources said the army was ordered to move to Dir and Malakand the two areas NWFP police chief Sharif Virk declared sensitive after the operation against Lal Masjid was launched on Tuesday.
Agencies add: Police said the suicide bomber, who was riding a bicycle, killed four security officials. They are Major Afaq, Lieutenant Zia, Tanvir and Barkat. The driver of the convoy sustained injuries and was admitted to Bat Khela Hospital in critical condition.
This article starring:
CLERIC FAZLULLAH IN SWAT
Taliban
ISPR Director General Maj Gen Waheed Arshad
police chief Sharif Virk
Shakirullah Khan, a trader union leader
Jamaat-e-Islami
Lal Masjid
Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
State Minister for Information Tariq Azeem told Dawn that Ghazis talk about martyrdom was a bluff, noting his brother said the same thing and then was arrested trying to sneak out of the complex disguised as a woman.
deputy prayer leader of Lal Masjid, declared on Friday he would rather die than surrender, hours after the government spurned his request for safe passage. We have decided that we can be martyred but we will not surrender. We are ready for our heads to be cut off but we will not bow to them, he told Geo TV. State Minister for Information Tariq Azeem told Dawn TV that Ghazis talk about martyrdom was a bluff, noting his brother said the same thing and then was arrested trying to sneak out of the complex disguised as a woman.
This article starring:
ABDUL RASHID GHAZI
Taliban
State Minister for Information Tariq Azeem
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#3
I think this guy is doing situps right now to get rid of his gut :).
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
07/07/2007 13:25 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Hey Perv, I'm sure that George will be willing to fly an ARCLIGHT strike over hte Lal Majsid mosque, if you say "pretty please". I'd be willing to guarantee there will be no survivors...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/07/2007 16:02 Comments ||
Top||
#5
OP, if ARCLIGHT was 'making monkey salad out of the jungle' in Nam, what would it be in Rawalpundi?
Militants holed-up in the Lal Masjid opened fire on a group of parents who had been allowed by the Islamabad administration to enter the mosque premises to get their children, injuring a man, Geo TV reported. The channel said that some bearded armed youths deployed on the mosques roof warned the parents of 23 students that they would be killed if they did not return. The youths opened fire on the parents when they insisted on taking their children away from the Lal Masjid, injuring Gul Khan who had come from Peshawar for his two teenaged daughters.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Don't be sniffing around for your daughters. They're mine now. Right hand and all that.
#2
Wow, imagine something like Beslan happening in Pakistan's Islamic utopia. That explosion you heard in the background is my Frink-O-Matic Irony Meter detonating.
* 17 more surrender, two killed in crossfire as siege continues
* Ghazi, supporters sign wills
ISLAMABAD: Two heavy blasts and gunfire rocked the Lal Masjid on Friday evening, as a dense cloud of smoke rose over the building in the latest clashes. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy prayer leader of Lal Masjid, and his supporters said that they would prefer death to arrest after the government called for an unconditional surrender.
Security forces fired several teargas shells at Lal Masjid that also troubled inhabitants of the areas around the mosque. There were unconfirmed reports of many casualties inside the mosque. The security forces continued their strong buildup, but exercised maximum restraint in launching the final assault despite capturing strategic positions on Thursday evening. The restraint is being exercised to secure the release of maximum students, especially females, to avoid massive causalities in case of an operation, authorities said.
Security forces kept announcing safe passage for surrendering students throughout the day and the number of students who have evacuated the mosque premises reached 1,221 795 male and 426 female students on Friday night. The officials put the number of those killed in the operation at 19 and the injured at 98.
Addressing reporters, Interior Secretary Kamal Shah repeated the governments demand that Ghazi and his companions surrender unconditionally. Shah requested religious parties to come forward and play role in resolving the standoff.
The security forces relaxed curfew for three hours between 12:30pm to 3:30pm in Sector G-6 so that the residents could purchase daily use items. Earlier in the day, Ghazi and his 400 followers wrote wills. Ghazis special assistant Abdul Qayyum told Daily Times on telephone that besides a collective will, all students had written individual wills which would be placed on the mosques rostrum. In the collective will the students have demanded burial inside the mosques courtyard if they are killed in the operation. Jamia Hafsa Principal Umme Hassan, wife of Maulana Abdul Aziz, claimed that more than 80 bodies 50 men and 30 women were lying in the compounds of the mosque and the madrassa.
Agencies add: Two students of Jamia Hafsa, who were surrendering to the authorities, were killed in crossfire between security forces and the madrassa militants. Also, 17 students including five females surrendered to security forces. Separately, a meeting chaired by Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao discussed law and order situation arising out of the Lal Masjid operation, Online reported. Fire broke out at Jamia Hafsa at around 1:30 am Saturday after a mortar shell was fired, Geo TV reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Lal Masjid, and his supporters said that they would prefer death to arrest
#2
besides a collective will, all students had written individual wills which would be placed on the mosques rostrum.
"Ummm this gives all my worldly goods to the Reverend Leader?"
Right, it's your religious duty to sign it WITHOUT reading first, sign now, right here, then I'll point the Kalishnikoff the other way, hurry up, there's long line.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/07/2007 11:38 Comments ||
Top||
President General Pervez Musharraf escaped yet another attempt on his life on Friday morning when around 36 rounds fired at his aircraft from a submachine gun in Rawalpindi missed their target. However, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) denied that the presidents plane had been attacked.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
Police said that the presidents plane took off from the Chaklala airbase for flood-hit areas of Balochistan and Sindh at around 10:15am and came under fire soon thereafter. The rounds were fired by a sub machinegun installed on the roof of a two-storey house, Fazal Manzil, in Asghar Mall not far from Islamabad Airport and the Chaklala airbase.
I can't think of many countries other than Pakland where you can set up an anti-aircraft gun on your roof and not have anyone ask any questions.
Police, army and intelligence agencies rushed to the house soon after the attack and seized a submachine gun, two anti-aircraft guns with tripods and two satellite antennas. The law enforcement personnel also arrested the house owner, Muhammad Sharif, and sealed the premises.
"Stick 'em up, homeowner! Yer under arrest!"
"Fer what?"
"That antiaircraft gun on yer roof!"
"I got a permit!"
Neighbours said that three bearded men, a woman and two children used to live in the house, but none of them were present when the law enforcers reached there.
"Whoa! Quelle surprise!
They said that two of the three bearded men were seen fleeing the area on a motorbike shouting slogans of Allah-ho-Akbar after the attack. They did not know when the third bearded man, woman and the children escaped.
"C'mon, woman! Get the kids in the Sidecar of Violence!"
ISPR DG Major General Waheed Arshad denied that the presidents aircraft had been fired at in Rawalpindi on way to Turbat (Balochistan). The president was not in the aircraft which was targeted. I have no details about the incident as investigations are underway, he said.
"Yeah. That wudn't him as got off. It wuz... ummm... somebody else."
Agencies add: Police have arrested two people in connection with the attack on the presidents aircraft. One of the suspects has been identified as Ghaffar who is a property dealer and had rented the house to the alleged attackers, NNI reported. A security official asking not to be named told AFP that the guns were similar to those used by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
No! Reeeeeeeeally?
Security officials said it was possible that the incident was against the backdrop of the episode of Lal Masjid.
You mean the Talibs getting Dire Revenge for the loss of their headquarters?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
two anti-aircraft guns with tripods
14.5mm DShKs? Seems like excessively ostentatious roof ornamentation, even for the Land of the Pure.
Posted by: ed ||
07/07/2007 0:54 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I wasn't shooting at Pres. Musharraf. We waz just celebrating a wedding.
Pakistani security forces on Friday demolished parts of a besieged mosque where hardcore militants have been holed up for the last four days as they prepared for a final assault to flush out the extremists, said officials.
"Mahmoud! Bring up the dozers!"
Hundreds of military and paramilitary soldiers deployed around the mosque resumed heavy fighting after a ceasefire lasting several hours during which authorities had relaxed a curfew imposed for Friday prayers. The troops carried out controlled blasts to make gaps in the building housing mainly female students, giving them a chance to flee.
"Red wire,so!... Green wire, so!... Okay, ever'body back!... Ready?... [KABOOM!]"
"Oh. So that's how it's done!"
'Our soldiers provided cover fire to the commandos who planted the explosive devices near the front part of Jamia Hafsa building,' a military officer told Aaj news channel.
"Right betwixt the eyes! Nice cover fire, there, Ahmed!"
The renewed fighting had killed three of his followers, hardline cleric of Lal Masjid, Red Mosque, Abdul Rashid Ghazi alleged.
"Dead! Gone! Cavorting with their 72 virgins!"
"Dudn't look like they had much fun departing this vale of tears, does it?"
"I'm pretty sure they're a lot happier now."
"That hadda hurt. Briefly."
Recurrent gunfire with a few deafening explosions hit the surrounded compound early Friday with security forces using 'dummy mortars' and machine-gun fire to pressure the hardcore Islamists into surrendering. But the students remained defiant after the government dismissed their offer to surrender in return for safe passage on Thursday evening.
"Hrarrr! Youse'll never take us alive, coppers!"
'We can never turn ourselves in. We will accept martyrdom but will not surrender,' Ghazi told the Geo tv on telephone.
"Hokay. Mahmoud! Bring up the artillery!"
Around 450 students wrote down their wills after offering Friday prayers, sources inside the mosque told the news channel.
"... and to Mustafa, I leave my collection of jihadi videos..."
'Our entire struggle and sacrifices were for the enforcement of Islamic law in the country,' a student, Salman, said in his will. 'We hope that the people of Pakistan will carry forward our efforts for Islamic justice system.'
Yeah, sure. They'll hop right on it as soon as you're dead.
Unconfirmed reports from inside the mosque suggested that there were some 300 men and hundreds of women and children in the heavily fortified compound that houses the Lal Masjid and its Jamia Hafsa seminary for girls.
Y'don't get much more Islamically heroic than that, unless you're shooting kiddies at Beslan.
Security forces surrounding the compound have so far not launched a full-scale attack after President Pervez Musharraf ordered them to keep collateral damage to the minimum.
"Omar, what's 'collateral damage'?"
"Innocent bystanders, I think."
At least 19 deaths have been confirmed officially in the siege, but witnesses and other independent observers say the number of casualties is running into several dozens. The mosque administration claimed that at least 30 young female students were killed in Friday's pre-dawn mortar attack on the seminary.
"Yeah! We seen it!"
Officials said the militants, who included rebels from banned religious outfits, were using the women and children as human shields, but Ghazi denied the allegations.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
'There are no militants belonging to jihadi organizations inside the mosque,' he told Aaj tv.
"Really."
Amid repeated calls for surrender, 1,221 people including 426 women left the mosque, while some 45 men were captured by the Pakistan Rangers paramilitary forces as they tried to escape after scaling the mosque's walls.
"Yeah. That wuz where all the jihadis went. They wuz just passin' through."
Ghazi's brother and Lal Masjid chief cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, was also arrested Wednesday night by security forces when he tried to flee disguised as a veiled woman with his wife and her students from the Jamia Hafsa seminary. In a bizarre appearance on state-run TV channel the next morning, he asked his pupils to surrender because they could not resist the force assembled against them much longer.
Of course it was "bizarre." Most things in Pakistan are "bizarre."
#7
Glenmore, You go it almost right; allow me to fix:
"lotp - maybe Reno can go work for Musharaf, show him how its done. She SHOULD even wear a burka."
Remember, Keep Pakistan Beautiful.
This appears to be a different attack than the Ahmad Maref one posted earlier (26 killed), but I'm not certain. Both are examples of the Religion of Pieces at work. Find a soft spot full of truly innocent civilians, mainly women, children and the elderly (and fluffy bunnies) and kill as many as possible, including rescuers. Then blame the US or Iraqi government for not protecting them. We need to pull out now so they will not have to continue these horrible attacks. We are the bad guys because we are forcing them to use these kinds of tactics. If we would just leave, the children could fly kites in the parks again. I am being sarcastic, but unfortunately, to a large number of Westerners, it is the 'truth.'
Tikrit, Jul 7, (VOI)- The casualties from the explosion that occurred in Tuz Khurmato district on Saturday morning rose up to 100 dead and 120 wounded, said a medical source while a security source said that scores of gunmen impeded the rescue work in the city that is located 200 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
"The final death toll of the explosion that occurred in an outdoor market at Tuz Khurmato district, this morning, reached 100 dead and 120 wounded," Dr. Hassan Zain al-Abdin, director of Salah al-Din Health Department, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
Dr. Zain al-Abdin added that most of the wounded were in a critical situation and they were rushed to hospitals in Kirkuk and Tikrit.
Earlier on Saturday, a police source said that a suicide bomber detonated a truck crammed with explosives in the mainly Turkmen market of Amer Li in Tuz Khurmato leaving 25 people dead and over 80 others injured, including women and children.
Medics from the Tuz Khurmato hospital said that it received 20 bodies and 90 wounded people, indicating that critical cases were transferred to the Kirkuk public hospital. Sources from the Iraqi police said that the explosion caused severe damage to nearby shops and houses.
Tuz Khurmato, a mainly Turkmen district within the Sunni province of Salah al-Din, lies 200 km northeast of Baghdad.
I thought this might be of interest to all the Burgers. Please continue to hold these brave men and women up in your prayers. Along with all the other miseries of human conflict, it's bloody hot, dusty, and miserable here. Cheers, Besoeker
#3
Thank you lotp, but no gratitude for me please. It's the young ones who go "outside the wire" on patrols, convoys, fly helos, or undertake thankless humanitarian missions and tangle with these bastards everyday that I'm concerned about. Save the ones who have gone before them, there are no greater Americans than these young people. Virtually no desertions as in other spots I've seen. No one quits. No one lets down their buddy, few grumble or go on sick call. Many are here on second, third, and fourth tours. They are bloody amazing. We should be proud of them, damn proud, and I know all Burgers are indeed. I just wish all America could see them. I only wish.
#4
The liberals don't want to see the troops because the troops shame them. The fine men and women over there truly remind the liberals what pathetic wastes of humanity that they are. Thus, they do everything they can too tear the troops down.
#5
After seeing the moonbats and loons marching in our 4th of July parade, losers all. Our combined veterans organization that plans and directs the parade were forced into letting them in - including code pink (commie witches so ugly dogs would sniff and run). It was pathetic but surprisingly they did not get much applause or acknowledgement but the VFW and American Legion and local reserve units did. I think the polls are out of whack and that there is still a lot of support for what we are doing in the WoT but we are nation of instant gratification now and it is waning.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/07/2007 12:00 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Virtually no desertions as in other spots I've seen. No one quits. No one lets down their buddy, few grumble or go on sick call. Many are here on second, third, and fourth tours. They are bloody amazing.
Besoeker, thanks for that! That's a very telling report on our guys and gal. We, of course, would only learn that here!
#7
Besoeker, I both understand your redirection of gratitude to the guys/gals having all the fun outside the wire (my unvarying reaction to any thanks sent my way when I was there) and defy it by saying thanks!
You touch on something that I too struggle to convey to the open minds I can find back here: the efforts of our troops and other Coalition personnel and the Iraqis who are part of the team are heroic, their fortitude is unlike anything else seen today, and this confirms what a reasonable eye would see already in terms of the importance and rightness of the cause.
I knew it before I came back, but without souring me or warping my perspective, first-hand exposure to this for nearly two years has put everything in the real world in a different light, and rarely a flattering one.
In all of human life it seems there are those who bear most of the burden vs. those who benefit or go along for the ride, but the disproportion in this situation today (that is the number who benefit while doing little or nothing or actively impeding the effort) is astonishing and discouraging.
BAGHDAD - Violence gripped southern Iraq Friday, with a bomb attack on a main oil pipeline extending to the Al Dawra oil refinery in the capital Baghdad.
Assem Jihad, spokesman for Iraqs Oil Ministry, said an explosive device was planted underneath the pipeline, which begins in the Udwaniya region, the independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported Friday. The explosion caused several fires which engulfed the area with clouds of smoke. The attack is expected to productivity of the Al Dawra refinery, which has a capacity ranging from 110,000 to 130,000 barrels a day.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
The attack is expected to productivity of the Al Dawra refinery
Sounds like English, but parsing forwards backwards, does not sense make.
An alleged al-Qaida militant was executed for his role in one of the first and bloodiest bombings in Iraq, a 2003 blast that killed Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and 84 other people, a Justice Ministry official said Friday. The militant, Oras Mohammed Abdul-Aziz, was executed by hanging Tuesday in Baghdad after being sentenced to death in October, ministry Undersecretary Busho Ibrahim told the Associated Press.
The execution announcement was the first word that a suspect had been tried in the al-Hakim killing. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack - a huge car bomb in August 2003 that went off outside the Shrine of Ali in Najaf, one of Shiite Islam's holist sites - and killed al-Hakim.
This article starring:
Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim
ORAS MOHAMED ABDUL AZIZ
al-Qaeda in Iraq
Undersecretary Busho Ibrahim
Al-Qaida in Iraq
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
Is hanging a particularly bad way to go - in Islam, I mean. Does it restrict one's virgins, for example?
Not as bad as being sewn into pigskin, I'm sure.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/07/2007 9:09 Comments ||
Top||
#2
You could say the individual is really hung. Maybe you get long, tall virgins. Come to think of it you don't get any virgins; that is an islamic myth.
A suicide car bomber struck outside a cafe in a tiny Kurdish village near the Iranian border, killing 26 people in a remote part of a province where US forces are waging an offensive against Sunni insurgents, police said. The blast Friday ripped through the coffee shop near a market of Iranian goods in the village of Ahmad Maref, 140 kilometers (85 miles) northeast of Baghdad, said an official at the joint security coordination committee of Diyala province. At least 33 people were wounded, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The village is home to about 30 Kurdish families who had been expelled under Saddam Hussein's rule and returned after his fall. Many Kurds in the area are Shi'ite Muslims.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
The IDF uncovered seven Kassam launchers near Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip during operations on Friday . One of the launchers was ready to be used in the near future, the army said. During the operation, Givati troops conducted comprehensive searches in fields and orchards from which rockets were launched into Israel. Soldiers all seven launchers connected to stopwatches, including one that had a rocket already in place.
The IDF described operations in Beit Hanun and in central Gaza as defensive action whose aim was to foil terrorist efforts to harm military forces operating in the area and to thwart terror attacks against Israeli targets.
The army on Friday afternoon wrapped up its operation in the Gaza Strip that left 11 Palestinians dead and more than 20 wounded. Reconnaissance troops from the military's Givati Brigade began operating in the area several days ago. The army interrogated 109 Palestinians during the operations and nine of them were transferred to Israel for further questioning.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
I'd feel happier if the title was: "IDF confiscates several hundred meters of sewage pipe".
Sri Lankan warplanes pounded Tamil Tiger rebel positions in the islands volatile north and east on Friday, while rebels fired mortars at advancing ground troops in the east, killing six soldiers, the military said.
Military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said soldiers advancing into the Thoppigala region, the final rebel stronghold in eastern Sri Lanka, faced long-range mortar attacks from the insurgents around noon Friday. Six soldiers died in the attack and about five others were wounded, Samarasinghe said.
He said that despite the attacks, the soldiers were closing in on getting total control of the region. We are in the final leg of clearing the area, Samarasinghe said. Air force jets also bombed rebel locations on Friday to back up troops in Thoppigala, Samarasinghe said. A second airstrike hit an identified rebel location in the northern Mannar district, Samarasinghe said, without elaborating.
He did not provide casualty estimates, and rebel officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Government forces have cleared the Tamil Tiger guerrillas from much of eastern Sri Lanka, but have been struggling to seize the eastern rebel bastion of Thoppigala for 14 years.
Elsewhere, soldiers acting on a tip recovered a haul of explosives and ammunition from a village north of the eastern port town of Trincomalee Thursday night, Samarasinghe said. The cache contained more than 100 bombs and 8,200 assault rifle bullets, Samarasinghe said. Many villages north of Trincomalee were under rebel control until a military assault last year, and guerrillas likely abandoned their weaponry as they fled the area, Samarasinghe said.
The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for Sri Lankas ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered decades of discrimination by majority Sinhalese-controlled governments. Assassinations, airstrikes and clashes have killed more than 5,000 people in the past 20 months, and have taken the death toll in two decades of violence past 70,000.
A Norway-brokered cease-fire signed in 2002 still holds officially, and neither side has withdrawn from it fearing international criticism.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Evidence that Iranian territory is being used as a base by al-Qaeda to help in terrorist operations in Iraq and elsewhere is growing, say western officials.
Growing, is it? We've only known about it for - what? Five? Six years?
It is not clear how much the al-Qaeda operation, described by one official as a money and communications hub, is being tolerated or encouraged by the Iranian government, they said.
The "government" doesn't. But Iran's not actually run by its "government." It's run from Qom, through the IRGC.
The groups operatives, who link the al-Qaeda leadership in Pakistan with their disciples in Iraq, the Levant and North Africa, move with relative freedom in the country, they said.
I think Dan Darling said that on his very first post here, lo, these many years ago.
The officials said the creation of some kind of al-Qaeda hub in Iran appears to be separate from the group of seven senior al-Qaeda figures, including Saad bin Laden, son of the groups figurehead, that Iran is said to have detained since 2002.
"Separate from" is not the same as "separated from."
A senior US official said the information had produced different assessments. The most conservative, cautious intelligence assessment is that [the Iranian authorities] are turning a blind eye. But there are a lot of doubts about that, he said. They are benefiting from the mayhem that AQ is carrying out. They dont have to deal with al-Qaeda to benefit.
They've been keeping the putative government and the actual government actions separate at least since Khatami was elected.
Yet while Tehran might be content with the pressure al-Qaeda is placing on the US occupation in Iraq, Iran, as a state based on Shia Islam surrounded by mainly Sunni countries, has long been wary of al-Qaedas fierce brand of Sunni Islam.
Yeah, yeah. Whoopdy doo. Tell it to Molotov and Ribbentrop.
A former Iranian official said Iran feared al-Qaeda and did not want to distract it from Iraq, dismissing any idea that Iran was supplying it with weapons. Our relationship with al-Qaeda, at an intelligence level, can be said to be successful as long as they are at a distance, he said.
We had a young water moccasin make his way into our family room a year or three ago. My relationship with him was successful, as long as he kept his distance. And the broom wasn't too far from my hand.
Analysts say several Sunni extremist groups, some presumed linked to al-Qaeda and from various ethnic groups including Kurds, are in Iran. US-led military action in Iraq has led some to seek refuge over the border.
Ansar al-Islam was present on both sides of the border prior to March 2003.
In the past, Tehran has also been a target of al-Qaeda attacks. A militant Sunni group based in Pakistan and possibly linked to al-Qaeda was suspected of the 1994 bombing of the shrine of the seventh Shia Imam, Reza, in Mashhad, killing 26 people.
That was... ummm... carry the three, divide by 16, square of the hypotenuse... 13 years ago, in the heyday of Sipah e-Sahaba. Its successor, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, stays at home, mostly, but would be happy to blow up anybody with the wrong shape of turban they could get to in Iran. But they're not al-Qaeda. They're independent contractors who're employed by al-Qaeda.
Iran has also shown growing concern over Jundullah, a radical Sunni group from the restive south-east area of Baluchestan that has carried out violent attacks in recent years.
I think Jundullah was a preexisting group that... ummm... recently came into some money. From somewhere.
Three years ago, Pakistani officials said members of al-Qaeda had begun leaving Pakistans border region close to Afghanistan and heading for Iraq.
It's easy enough to just grab a PIA flight from Karachi, but then there's the problem of getting off the plane in Baghdad. It's more discreet to do the romantic donkey route across Iran, with stops at those quaint guest houses offering 1-hour marriages along the way, until you get to Teheran, and then to fly from there to Damascus, for transit to al-Qaim or wherever they come in now.
Of the routes used, going overland via Iran was the easiest. That traffic might have increased as links between al-Qaeda and its Iraq offshoot intensify.
Or you could hop the plane in Karachi and fly directly to Damascus if you don't have any business meetings in Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 11:18 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
Funny how AQ started out as Sunni, pissed them off and is now working with the most dominant Shia community in the world. Pretty fickled bunch, if you ask me. Next they'll start appearing at the Methodist church near you.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
07/07/2007 12:03 Comments ||
Top||
According to sources close to the investigation, Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command played a role in assassinating ex-minister Pierre Gemayel. The sources said a vehicle used in the assassination, a Honda VRC, was stolen from the mountain resort of Brummana in October 2006 and taken to an area in the northern sector of the eastern Bekaa valley where car bandits operate. Shortly after that, a member of Jibril's Syrian-backed PFLP-GC approached the gang and bartered the car for a quantity of weapons, the sources added.
The car was used in the Nov. 21 assassination of Gemayel in Suburban Jdaideh, almost a month after it was stolen from Brummana, the sources added. The vehicle was later driven to Syria, which turned it back to Lebanon in Dec. 2006 in line with a warrant issued by the Interpol, they explained.
One source said lab tests showed that the car was used in the Gemayel assassination and two of the gunmen who used it were killed later in clashes between Lebanese Forces and Fatah al-Islam terrorists in Tripoli's Mitein street on May 20. Bodies of the gunmen and samples taken from the car were under lab tests to determine identities of all the culprits who gunned down Gemayel, the source added.
He said all details related to the investigation in Gemayel's killing and the Fatah al-Islam link have been relayed to the U.N. committee investigating the 2005 killing of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes. In October 2005, the U.N. investigative report issued by Detlev Mehlis named Ahmad Jibril and Ahmed Abdel Aal of the Al Ahbash Islamic group, as involved suspects in the murder of former PM Rafik Hariri.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: PFLP-GC
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.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Fierce fighting broke out around Afghanistan on Friday, with battles in three separate regions killing more than 100 militants, part of a cycle of rapidly rising violence five years into the U.S.-led effort to defeat the Taliban.
Authorities in Yemen have confirmed that an Egyptian man killed in a gunfight was the mastermind of Monday's suicide bomb attack that killed nine people.
An Iraqi-trained doctor appeared in a London court on Saturday in connection with failed car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow. Bilal Abdulla, 27, was charged with conspiracy to cause explosions. Dressed in a white sweatshirt, he spoke only to confirm his name and address.
Akhmed Dakayev, Chechnya's deputy interior minister, has been shot and killed by rebels in the capital Grozny on Friday, local officials said. "He had gone with his group to check out a report on the presence of the Wahhabite Yunis Akhmadov" in a house in Grozny's Minutka district, Ramzan Magamedov, Grozny's deputy mayor said. 
TWO West Australian hospitals have been raided and a further five foreign doctors questioned as Australian inquiries connected to the foiled United Kingdom terrorist attacks spread to two more states.
Explosions and heavy gunfire stopped Islamist politicians from entering a besieged Islamabad mosque on Saturday, on a mission to persuade a radical cleric to send out children among his hundreds of militant followers. The five-member delegation of religious conservatives blamed security forces for opening fire, when the cleric had already given them an all-clear to enter the Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid.
Pakistani investigators are probing suspected links between an attempt to shoot the plane carrying Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, and a siege at a mosque in the capital Islamabad. Investigators said on Saturday that they were also trying to find out whether a militant "mole" within the Pakistani administration leaked the information about the departure of Musharraf's aircraft, which is always kept top secret. Shots were fired at the plane as it left a military airbase near Islamabad on Friday. Police found two anti-aircraft guns and a machine gun on the roof of a nearby house. 
RAIPUR Police have recovered 100kg of explosives from a forest hideout of Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh, officials said yesterday. The explosives were seized late on Thursday from a forest in Rajnandgaon district that borders Maharashtra. "The explosives are very powerful and are basically used for making country-made bombs," Amit Kumar, Rajnandgaon district superintendent, told IANS. Police sources said the seizure was the biggest in the state.
PESHAWAR A Waziristan tribe killed four suspected Taliban militants while rescuing a Pakistan Army captain who was abducted at gunpoint as the body of a government official was found on Friday in North Waziristan, officials and tribal sources said. Lashkar, an armed group of the Dirdoni tribe, chased the militants after they abducted Captain Faisal Islam, a trainer at Razmak Cadet College in North Waziristan. 
CHAKDARA: Four Pakistan Army troops, including a major and a lieutenant, were killed on Friday in an improvised explosive device attack on a military convoy in Dir a stronghold of the 
Militants holed-up in the Lal Masjid opened fire on a group of parents who had been allowed by the Islamabad administration to enter the mosque premises to get their children, injuring a man, Geo TV reported. The channel said that some bearded armed youths deployed on the mosques roof warned the parents of 23 students that they would be killed if they did not return. The youths opened fire on the parents when they insisted on taking their children away from the Lal Masjid, injuring Gul Khan who had come from Peshawar for his two teenaged daughters.
BAGHDAD - Violence gripped southern Iraq Friday, with a bomb attack on a main oil pipeline extending to the Al Dawra oil refinery in the capital Baghdad.
An alleged al-Qaida militant was executed for his role in one of the first and bloodiest bombings in Iraq, a 2003 blast that killed Shiite leader 
The IDF uncovered seven Kassam launchers near Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip during operations on Friday . One of the launchers was ready to be used in the near future, the army said. During the operation, Givati troops conducted comprehensive searches in fields and orchards from which rockets were launched into Israel. Soldiers all seven launchers connected to stopwatches, including one that had a rocket already in place. 
Sri Lankan warplanes pounded Tamil Tiger rebel positions in the islands volatile north and east on Friday, while rebels fired mortars at advancing ground troops in the east, killing six soldiers, the military said. 
