A roadside bomb killed at least eight women travelling in a minibus in the south of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday, witnesses said. The driver, conductor and two other passengers in the bus survived, escaping with minor injuries, witness Farah Mohamed said. At least 8 women were killed when a minibus carrying several passengers was blown up by a roadside bomb blast, she told Reuters, adding that she had seen the bodies, some of them blown to pieces. Police spokesman Abdulahi Ibrahim Omar confirmed the blast but had no further details. It looked like a remote-controlled bomb that missed its target - a government pickup truck carrying a number of soldiers passed there seconds after, witness Ahmed Jimale said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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On the basis of avowals and testimonies made by several arrested terrorists, the security services in the province of Boumerdes, 50 km east of Algiers, have decided to close to traffic up to 12 communal roads in an attempt to ward off potential suicide bombings.
Most of the closed roads lead to police stations or public buildings in various parts of the city of Boumerdes. The move was made all the more urgent following the reported stealing in recent days of several cars and vans which are feared to be used in renewed terrorist bombings. Security around strategic buildings was also beefed up as part of deterrent measures.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Acknowledgeable sources revealed that the attack on Djanet, southern Algeria, military airport claimed by Al Qaeda north African branch, was just a lure from this organization in a move to diffuse its successive failures.
This terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the attack of this airport last November, although thorough investigations carried out by the security services proved that a mob of smugglers were responsible for this attack. The source reveals that the case will be presented to the judicial authorities at earliest.
The security forces have, during the last few weeks, arrested dozens of suspicious individuals linked to contraband activities in the regions of Tamanrasset and Illizi. This large- scale operation led to the identification of a key figure known for his smuggling activities in arms and narcotics.
Nonetheless, there is close connection between the smugglers and a group of terrorists led by Yahia Abi Ammar who operates in the region of Al Bayadh. This one collects huge sums from the smugglers to give them in return to Al Qaeda networks operating beyond the Southern Algerian borders.
But the fear of the existence of dormant cells in the southern regions of Algeria is palpable, that is why a series of arrests have been carried out by the security forces among individuals allegedly linked to terrorists groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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The investigating magistrate of the court of Msilla, south east of Algiers, the day before yesterday ordered the imprisonment of 11 in 12 individuals on charges of pertaining to Al Qaedas North African branch. Two of them had benefited from the National Charter for Peace and Reconciliation and released in 2006, after being arrested for their connection to terrorists groups in 1994.
According to well informed sources, troops of the National Gendarmerie last month dismantled a logistic and support network comprising 12 individuals, after being put under surveillance for several weeks. The members of the group were acting under cover of nomads wandering in the grazing lands with their herds bought with plundered or laundered money. The arrested members revealed that they were securing shelter to Al Qaeda members operating in the rugged regions of the locality of Djelfa and were hiding terrorists in their tents to escape the security forces.
This operation is the third one of its kind, since the security forces have dismantled few months ago another supporting network of 14 members in the same region, two individuals were set to join Al Qaeda ranks. The leader of the Terrorist organization, Droudkel, shifted his activities to the region of Msilla , considered as staging area by the terrorists owing to its geographical situation linking southern cities to eastern ones passing by the mountainous regions of Kabylia. Estimates released by the security services reveal that the locality of Msilla counts 22 wanted terrorists who joined Al Qaeda organization in August 2006 and August 2007, four of them are from Mauritania. According to these terrorists moved to Kabylia region.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Fred posted this snippet of the article, published in the Pak Daily Times. Now, as Paul Harvey would say, stand by for the Rest of the Story. And bring your barf bag:
Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, had just consoled the father of a 16-year-old suicide bomber when he spoke of his religious compulsion to drive American forces out of Pashtun tribal lands.
"I know very well the military might of America, and that fighting with America is like banging my head against a wall," said Mehsud, his dark eyes gleaming beneath a black turban.
"But my religion compels me to fight against the occupiers until the last drop of my blood,"
"I know very well the military might of America, and that fighting with America is like banging my head against a wall," said Mehsud, his dark eyes gleaming beneath a black turban.
"But my religion compels me to fight against the occupiers until the last drop of my blood," he said, according to a witness among the scores of kinsmen and fighters who had assembled to commemorate the boy's martyrdom for the cause.
That was in August, 2006, in the village of Khaisor in South Waziristan, just a few days after Shoaib, the son of a cleric, had rammed his truck into a convoy of Western troops in the Afghan village of Nawe Adda in Paktika province.
Pakistani general had called him "a soldier of peace" for signing a peace deal
Two months ago, Mehsud was declared Emir of the Taliban in Pakistan. Yet in 2005 a Pakistani general had called him "a soldier of peace" for signing a peace deal that brought a short-lived lull in the conflict in South Waziristan.
Intelligence officials say he's been behind a wave of suicide attacks in Pakistani cities since the army stormed Islamabad's Red Mosque in July to crush a militant movement. But it was when Pakistani officials named him as the prime suspect in the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27 that Mehsud's notoriety rocketed.
evidence pointed toward the little big man -- Mehsud is barely five foot tall
CIA Director Michael Hayden also said the evidence pointed toward the little big man -- Mehsud is barely five foot tall -- in South Waziristan.
According to the Friday Times magazine, Mehsud is financed by al Qaeda and Afghan and Pakistani businessmen in the United Emirates
In a recent interview with al Jazeera, Mehsud said he had met Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the al Qaeda leader killed in Iraq. According to the Friday Times magazine, Mehsud is financed by al Qaeda and Afghan and Pakistani businessmen in the United Emirates.
Despite this pedigree, Brigadier Mahmood Shah, former chief of security in the tribal areas, says he is unimpressive. "He is not much of a man, inconsistent government policy has made him so important."
Mehsud possesses qualities that have allowed him to assemble a heavily armed following. "He is very clever, he is very cool-minded, he is very calculating. He is not a jumpy character."
But Shah says Mehsud possesses qualities that have allowed him to assemble a heavily armed following. "He is very clever, he is very cool-minded, he is very calculating. He is not a jumpy character." Shah believes Mehsud has been able to exert fear over ordinary tribesmen who are sick of the conflict.
Th[ey] might underestimate Mehsud, whose fighters humiliated the Pakistani army last August by capturing some 250 soldiers in a supply convoy, and later exchanged them for the release of 25 of his own men
"I don't think people respect him because they think that all their troubles are because of him. Th[ey] might underestimate Mehsud, whose fighters humiliated the Pakistani army last August by capturing some 250 soldiers in a supply convoy, and later exchanged them for the release of 25 of his own men.
"DIABETIC"
A member of the Shahbikhel, a sub-tribe of the Mehsud, who with the Wazir represent the main tribes in Waziristan, the tribal region furthest from Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier. There are seven regions within the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), but North and South Waziristan are the poorest and most violent.
...recalls a simple person, quite religious
Abdul Karim Mehsud, a lawyer in Peshawar who comes from the same tribe, said he hadn't seen his clansman for six years, but recalls a simple person, quite religious, but an avowed jihadi driven by desire to liberate Afghanistan, where he had fought.
"He's a diabetic and he doesn't sleep well because of the diabetes," the lawyer said.
Many of the men in Baitullah Mehsud's family are truck drivers, according to the lawyer. Other members of the tribe describe a round faced man with a trim black beard in his mid-thirties, who left school at the age of 12, never made much money, is economical with words and strict in dealings with subordinates.
Mehsud, who was actually born near Bannu, a town at the gateway to North Waziristan, moved to the village of Shaga, and built a mud-walled home on the dusty land of his forefathers.
A government official with experience in Waziristan, who requested anonymity, said the authorities had built Mehsud's reputation by blaming him for any attack they can't solve.
"He's enjoying it. He's raising his status among his own fighters," the official said dismissively.
#4
*"Until the last drop of my blood" > Amers are reminded again that many dedic Muslims including Radical Islamists fear their -ism's USSR-style self-implosion + obsolescence.
*"Little big man" > DUSTIN HOFFMAN in LITTLE BIG MAN???
* "Met ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI, the Al Qaeda killed in Iraq" > I too met + know ZARQ = ZARK, and I'm NOT convinced he's dead, NOR that the personage reportedly killed in Iraq was him.
* "Humiliated the Pakistani Army" > IOW, for such an allegedly small unimportant man, MEHSUD HAS TALENT/WORTH.
* "Is a DIABETIC" > RUNS IN THE FAMILY/BLOOD.
OTOH, "LOVE LETTER" > VIBE MAGAZINE [USA/African-Amer Mag] > VIBE KNOWS MANY OF YOU DAWGS OUT THERE DESIRE = ARE HOPING FOR A SERIOUS WHITNEY HUSTON COMEBACK - WHITNEY'S THE QUEEN!
Whitney fan OSAMA BIN LADEN???
D *** NG IT, VIBE MAGAZINE IS SICK AND TIRED OF RAP MUSIC BEING SICK AND TIRED!
#6
NEWSMAX > ABU KHABAB [MASRI] TRAINING RECRUITS FOR WMD ATTACKS. USG believed Masri survived deadly attack back in 2006 - is now allegedly training AL QAEDA foreign recruits in secure Paki areas where research into Chemical-Biological WMDS can be safely conducted.
ISRAEL > DIMONA reactor city suicide attacks > IMO, marks a shift in focii to seriously damage or destroy Israel's self-defense nuclear assets, espec NUCMATS for mil-oriented nuke warhead production
Almost 7,000 infantrymen are unfit to fight, leaving front-line troops "dangerously exposed," figures show today. One in 14 soldiers is sick or injured at a time when every regiment of 600 faces a shortfall of 100 men because of problems with recruitment and the numbers leaving the Army.
Shades of the First World War.
the Armed Forces are at the very limit of being able to provide personnel for the front line.
Troop shortages are so acute that at least six battalions are being sent to do the job of four battalions when the next brigade deploys to Afghanistan this spring, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. Commanding officers waiting for reinforcements for infantry units in Helmand have been told to wait until 17-year-old soldiers turned 18, the legal landmark to qualify for the battlefield.
Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, said the Government had overstretched the Armed Forces to the point where it produced "some very real consequences on our abilities to fight on the front line". The shortages could "endanger the safety of personnel" and indicated a "retention crisis" in the military.
Continued on Page 49
#3
Tommy's stretched to the limit and gets no respect. I do not mean that as a joke. When the government
*avoids discussing Islam as a source of terrorism
*Puts Muzzies with multiple wives on the dole
*cuts its armed forces to the bone
It lays itself open to infiltration and takeover.
And the Dems are trying to do the EXACT SAME THING here in the US.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/04/2008 11:31 Comments ||
Top||
#4
The left also has the stupid idea that the military will "always do what they are told", even if it means fighting to the death armed with only a plastic spoon.
Now granted, there are those that would do that if their home was being attacked. But that is a far cry from being projected from their homeland to fight in another country. To do that, they must have some degree of support and respect, instead of being treated like expendable minimum wage slobs disdained and despised by their own government.
And the biggest irony of all is if the military tells the left to go bugger off, the left's first response is to create a draft, thinking that they can *compel* people to fight to the death, armed with only a plastic spoon.
More than two months after the Pakistani military launched an operation to clear the district of Swat in the Northwest Frontier Province, pockets of Taliban forces and safe havens remain. The Pakistani military and police have taken casualties far greater the combined US and Iraqi forces have fighting the insurgency in Iraq, according to an Interior Ministry report obtained by the Daily Times.
The most telling information from the Interior Ministry's status report on Swat is the casualty data. The Pakistani security forces operating in the small district lost 195 soldiers, policemen, and Frontier Constabulary paramilitaries during the month of January alone. Data on December 2007 is not available.
The Pakistani military has been keen to report the killing or capturing of Taliban forces in Swat, but has withheld data on military and police casualties. While hundreds of Taliban were reported killed or captured in January, only a small fraction of the security forces casualties were reported.
Continued on Page 49
#2
This is simply untrue. The original article (http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008story_3-2-2008_pg1_2) states the these casualties were from JAN 07-08. 13 months, not one.
The US Military suffered 941 KIA and 6100 WIA in the same time frame.
Iraqi Army and Security forces - over 1500 KIA.
(globalsecurity and icasualties.org)
The statement, "The Pakistani military and police have taken casualties far greater the combined US and Iraqi forces have fighting the insurgency in Iraq" is false by a vast margin. The headline - while I'm sure unintented as such - is misleading.
A much more appropriate comparison would be the Swat and the Diyala Province (6800 sq mi / Pop of 1.27 million), home to 128 US (not including Iraqi ISF) casualties in the same time frame.
Although I agree the region IS important and dangerous, I thought it was necessary to offer some persepctive - The stats don't back up the claim.
#3
Also neglected to be mentioned in the article -
Our military is afforded the best available training, protection, medical evacuation, and treatment on earth...We enjoy the advantages of 24/7 aerial recon and air/fire support. Wounded soldiers have >90% survival rate and get to a hospital in 30-60 minutes.
KIA rates don't prove anything - more people will die in motorcycle crashes if they don't wear a good helmet...it doesn't make their highway more dangerous!
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb. 3 -- A Libyan al-Qaeda commander who was killed last week in northwestern Pakistan had lived there for years and, despite a $200,000 U.S. bounty on his head, felt secure enough to meet officials and visit hospitals, according to officials and residents of this city.
As he organized suicide bombings and other attacks in neighboring Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi found a comfortable refuge in Pakistan's border region, the sources said in interviews. He met openly with a Pakistani politician and a Libyan diplomat and called on foreign fighters recovering from their wounds.
The Pakistani government contends it has been doing everything possible to capture al-Qaeda figures within its borders. But Libi, who was killed in a missile attack last week, moved unchallenged around the heart of Peshawar, a city of about 1.2 million people, underscoring how freely he and other al-Qaeda leaders have been able to operate in Pakistan.
One day in 2006, Libi strode into the central prison in Peshawar, the administrative capital of North-West Frontier Province. As another Libyan fighter sat nearby behind bars -- in the custody of Pakistani authorities -- Libi, the politician and the Libyan diplomat argued over whether the man should be deported against his wishes to Libya or released to fight another day, according to Javed Ibrahim Paracha, the politician who helped arrange the meeting.
"I knew Abu Laith for quite some time," said Paracha, a former member of the Pakistan National Assembly who is running for a parliamentary seat again in elections this month.
Paracha called Laith "a good and pious Muslim" and said the Libyan had frequently visited hospitals in Peshawar and the nearby city of Bannu to check on foreign fighters who had been wounded fighting alongside the Taliban and other militant groups.
A Pakistani prison official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed some details of Paracha's account of the gathering and said it occurred at least 18 months ago.
The lack of progress in hunting al-Qaeda commanders such as Libi has fueled frustration among U.S., Afghan and European officials, who say al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies regularly plan operations abroad from havens in Pakistan. The Pakistani government has barred U.S. forces from searching for al-Qaeda leaders on its soil.
It has been nearly two years since Pakistani forces are known to have killed or captured any significant al-Qaeda figures. The last was Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, an Egyptian citizen who had been indicted in the United States in connection with the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.
Atwah had been on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorism suspects, although intelligence analysts did not consider him part of the network's core leadership. He was killed in April 2006 in a Pakistani airstrike in North Waziristan.
Libi's activities in Pakistan had been a particularly sore point between the United States and the government of President Pervez Musharraf.
A few months after Libi visited the Peshawar jail, U.S. military officers said, Libi organized a suicide attack outside Bagram air base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Cheney. At least 23 people were killed in the February 2007 bombing.
Some security officials and analysts said Libi also orchestrated a 2005 prison breakout of four al-Qaeda fighters from the U.S. military's prison at Bagram.
Libi emerged as a major figure among Islamic extremists in 2002, when he announced via videotape that al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar had survived the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Libi's death was reported Thursday in a statement released on an al-Qaeda Web site. Although the statement did not give details, he is thought to have been among 12 people killed in a missile strike Tuesday in a village in North Waziristan.
Intelligence reports indicate that Libi had been on his way to a meeting with Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban commander and tribal leader who has been blamed in the Dec. 27 assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, according to an intelligence official in Europe who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The identities of the other people killed in the missile strike are unknown. Pakistani officials said they have had difficulty gaining access to the scene, but residents have said local Taliban commanders pulled the bodies out of the rubble. Neither U.S. nor Pakistani officials have publicly asserted responsibility for the attack.
Libi's death came two months after he and al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced in a joint statement that a Libyan militant network had formally joined forces with al-Qaeda. Libi was a longtime leader in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an organization founded in the early 1990s to topple Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.
The Libyan government had been trying to persuade members of the group to agree to a truce, which was partly why Libi had agreed to meet at the Peshawar prison with a diplomat from the Libyan Embassy in Islamabad, said Paracha, the Pakistani politician who arranged the meeting.
Paracha said the encounter led to further "interactions" between Libi and the Libyan government, though he declined to give details. At the time, he said, Libi was an independent operator who had not formally pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda, but worked closely with the network and Taliban forces to fight U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
"He was not directly involved with al-Qaeda but would join the bin Laden forces on a needed basis," Paracha said. "He was leading his own group of Libyan militants."
Paracha is a regional leader in the branch of the Pakistan Muslim League party that is headed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Paracha is known to have close contacts with Taliban leaders and other militants.
He said he has negotiated the release of hundreds of foreign fighters from Pakistani prisons on the condition that they leave the country. "I've been doing this service for four years," he said.
Paracha's efforts to mediate a peace deal between Libi and the Libyan government went nowhere, however, according to a Libyan source familiar with the talks.
"Abu Laith was 100 percent against the negotiations between the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and the government," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He refused to be part of it."
This article starring:
al-Qaeda
Posted by: john frum ||
02/04/2008 08:12 ||
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#1
Eh? I'm surprised he didn't have a government driver and a police escort as he moved around.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
02/04/2008 8:27 Comments ||
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#2
He was only a #3.
The ISI car and driver is reserved for #1 and #2.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/04/2008 8:38 Comments ||
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#4
It has been nearly two years since Pakistani forces are known to have killed or captured any significant al-Qaeda figures. The last was Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, an Egyptian citizen who had been indicted in the United States in connection with the bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.
Maybe some in the leadership are disenchanted or had family members killed over the last 6 months, starting to do some of that traditional tribal ethos back stabbing. I suggest they 'purge' all of their upper leadership just to be sure.
#5
I gotta wonder if that $200,000 U.S. bounty on his head finally had an effect. Might make some of the rest of them think twice if we publicized that it did.
#8
I think it's time for India and the US to "solve" the Pakistani problem - permanently. A greater Afghanistan would be a pretty stable country, IMHO. Since India derives its name from the Indus River, it's only right that the Indus River be part of its boundaries. Screw Pakistan and the Four Horsemen it rode in on.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/04/2008 14:26 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Joint India/American superhighway Karachi to Kabul? Gotta be easier than the Burma Road.
#10
OPI think it's time for India and the US to "solve" the Pakistani problem - permanently. A greater Afghanistan would be a pretty stable country, IMHO. Since India derives its name from the Indus River, it's only right that the Indus River be part of its boundaries. Screw Pakistan and the Four Horsemen it rode in on.
dibs on the Kyber Pass and all the Jingle Trucks!
***
Paracha called Laith "a good and pious Muslim".
lol, faithfully translated or
'Break It Down'
"a good muslim" = A Decorated with Oak Leaves Goat Fondler.
And the, "Pious Muslim" part = A Registered Scum Bag Pedophile, of course.
#14
JFM: "Look a the map and tell me how you supply the forces in Afghanistan if Pakistan is closed. Now once the Iranian route reopens..."
If we had any balls, we would look at the map of Georgia, circa 1860-something and that little walk about a good ol' boy named Sherman took, and use that little historical tidbit to create our own resupply routes. but that's just me..
At least eight people were feared killed and 10 others were injured in a blast near the Pakistan army's General Headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Monday.
The explosion occurred at 7.15 am outside the gate of the army's National Logistics Cell in R A Bazar, a high security area. Rescue workers and ambulances rushed to the site soon after the blast and security forces cordoned off the area. Media and passers-by were prevented from going to the site of the attack as investigators scoured the area for clues.
Geo News channel reported that at least eight persons were killed and 10 injured in the attack.
Security personnel, on their way to work, pass through the area where the Combined Military Hospital and other army installations are also located.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Suicide attack on Pakistan army bus kills five
A suicide attacker rammed a bomb-laden motorbike into a Pakistan army bus taking medical staff to work Monday in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, killing five people, police said.
The bomber struck during the morning rush-hour near the heavily guarded headquarters of the Pakistani military, mangling the minibus and damaging several other cars. Security officials cordoned off the area.
Pakistan has been hit by a spike in violence linked to its struggle against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, raising fears for security in the nuclear-armed Islamic nation ahead of key elections set for February 18.
"It was a suicide attack, it appears that a man on a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed the bus," the officer in charge of the local police station, Basharat Abbasi, told AFP at the scene.
"Five people are confirmed dead and 25 are injured, some of them critically. We have launched an investigation".
The army confirmed that four military personnel on the bus "embraced martyrdom" in a suicide attack, while a senior security official said a civilian in another vehicle also died.
The bus contained personnel from a military medical school in the city, security officials said. Most were trainees but one officer was among the dead, they said.
The blast blew off the roof, windows and doors of the bus, leaving it a charred wreck. Troops covered remains with a white tent while military police ordered journalists to stay away from the scene.
Eyewitness Shiraz Khalid, a motor mechanic, said he was buying breakfast when he heard a huge blast and rushed to the scene.
"The bus was completely destroyed. I saw dozens of people lying injured and dead on the road, covered in blood -- most were wearing army uniforms. One was a woman," Khalid told AFP.
"We shifted at least three people to hospital before the army came."
Another witness, Haji Shaukat Khan, said he was opening his tyre shop in the Royal Artillery Bazaar about 200 metres (yards) from the scene when he heard a "gigantic explosion."
"There was a big ball of fire and smoke. Some pellets from the bomb hit the wall of my shop and I dived down, because I was injured in the arm in another blast that happened at this spot last year," he said.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/04/2008 7:24 Comments ||
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#2
Posted by: john frum ||
02/04/2008 8:45 Comments ||
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Security forces, in collaboration with political authorities, have destroyed militants hideouts in Darra Adam Khel and seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition.
Official sources said that these hideouts were captured during the ongoing military operation in the area. The security forces during the recent operation seized ammunition, including long and short range rocket-launchers, anti-aircraft guns, SPG-9 (with range of 1,000 metres), Jihadi CDs, nuclear biological chemical face mask, two suicide jackets with detonators, bullets of various rifles and RPH guns, cache of chemicals used in improvised explosive devices (IEDs), 14.5mm guns and heavy and light machine-guns.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Unidentified people kidnapped two personnel of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) late on Saturday, sources said. ICRC media officer in Islamabad, Sitara Jabeen, confirmed the abduction of two officials, along with a jeep, while they were going to the Afghan border at Torkham for custom clearance of some goods bound for Afghanistan.
Official sources told Daily Times that ICRCs Gulzar Khan and his driver were kidnapped between Shagai and Parangsam areas while they were en route to Torkham from Peshawar.
A spokesman for the Khyber Agency political administration said the two ICRC workers had not entered the jurisdiction of the agency. He added that tribal authorities always provided a security escort to the officials upon their entry into the agency. The political administration has launched a search operation in Jamrud and Landi Kotal, but the abducted officials have not been traced yet.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Two bomb explosions damaged a union council nazims house in the Kooza Bandai area of Kabal tehsil of Swat district on Sunday. No casualties were reported. The bombs were planted near Nazim Hidayat Ali Khans house, sources told Daily Times. They were detonated with a remote control device, they said. Also on Sunday, the curfew in Swat was relaxed from 6am to 8pm, during which all markets and business centres in Mingora remained open. Not too many people were seen in the markets, as cold, rain and snow forced most people to stay indoors.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Four Lashker-e-Taiba militants met with an unusual end when the Jammu and Kashmir police chose not to fire a single bullet and instead used water to drown them in their bunker.
a proven technique against rats and assorted vermin
They could have swum out and surrendered.
The incident happened last week in Rafiabad. Senior police officials said the militants, all Pakistani nationals, resorted to heavy firing from the bunker. As civilian casualties were feared, the police hit upon the idea of filling the bunker with water. Even as water was being forced into the bunker appeals were made to the militants to surrender, the officials said.
After some time, firing from the bunker stopped and the police recovered four bodies, they said. We could not have fired and a gun shot could have led to civilian casualty. My instructions to my boys is that optimum care should be taken to ensure that not a single innocent [person] came in the line of fire, DGP Kuldeep Khoda said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Three suspected terrorists arrested in Karnataka have told the police that they planned to set off explosions at important IT and tourist spots in Bangalore and Goa. A team from the Corps of Detectives has taken over investigation of the case.
Police say Abu Bakar, one of the arrested, has admitted that the men were trained in making bombs and engineering blasts in crowded areas. The team seized detonators, crude bombs made from easily available chemicals like ammonium nitrate, books and CDs in Hubli and Davangere. CNN-IBN was given the confessional statement of the 22-year-old Abu Bakar in which he says that they were planning to set off blasts, perhaps even serial blasts, after January 30.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Police arrested a teenager who had confessed to plotting a suicide attack to kill Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, security officials told Reuters on Sunday.
The 16-year-old boy was arrested late on Saturday in Dera Ismail Khan where the JUI-F chief lives. The boy was caught ... with a vest and explosives, an intelligence official said anonymously. He said the would-be attacker had admitted that Fazl was his target.
The JUI-F chief is believed to have angered militants by opposing clerics who governed a radical mosque in Islamabad, before commandos stormed it in July. More than 100 people were killed, including many gunmen.
Two other intelligence officials confirmed a youth planning to become a suicide bomber and attack Fazl had been arrested. The chief of police in Dera Ismail Khan said a boy had been arrested but denied he was part of a plot to kill Fazl. The JUI-F chief was not immediately available for comment.
Other suspects: Police official Sarfraz Khan told AFP that they were looking for two other suspects in this regard. The government has warned all politicians that they face the danger of attacks in the run-up to the February 18 general election. Former Pakistan Peoples Party chairwoman Benazir Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack on December 27.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
Men claiming to be terrorists with suicide jackets are taking families in cars hostage, and asking them to drive towards clusters of police or Rangers, according to two reports received by Daily Times.
According to one authenticated report, a couple with their one-year-old baby were going shopping when a man got into the backseat. He was wearing a shawl that he pulled away to reveal a suicide jacket.
Drive to wherever you see five to six policemen standing around, he said. Then Im going to blow us all up and even you will be Shaheed [martyred] like me. They drove around for three hours after which the man had the couple drop him off at Native Jetty Bridge.
"Never mind."
In the second case, on Friday, a couple with two children were driving past the Saudi Arabian Embassy when a man got in at a traffic signal. Astaghfir Allah! I dont want your watch or money; I just want you to hit the first Rangers mobile unit you see, the man said when the husband offered his watch and money. The man later disembarked at the same area. Police chief Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui said that no one had registered an FIR yet. We have received reports that this is happening, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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The U.S. military said Monday that it accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians during an operation targeting al-Qaida in Iraq south of Baghdad. The civilians were killed Saturday near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the Iraqi capital, U.S. Navy Lt. Patrick Evans told The Associated Press. Three more civilians were wounded and taken to U.S. military hospitals nearby, he said. The incident and the events surrounding it are under investigation, Evans said.
The killings occurred as U.S. forces pursued suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants in the area. Shortly after the incident, American officers met with a Muslim sheik representing citizens in the area, he said.
"We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent civilian life," Evans said in a statement e-mailed to the AP.
Saturday's strike was the deadliest known case of mistaken identity in recent months.
In November, a leader of one of the so-called awakening councils Sunni tribesmen allied with American forces fighting to oust al-Qaida from their hometowns said U.S. soldiers killed dozens of his fighters during a 12-hour battle north of Baghdad. The leader, Mansour Abid Salim of the Taji Awakening Council, accused American troops of mistaking his men for militants. The U.S. military admitted killing 25 men, but said they were insurgents operating "in the target area" where al-Qaida was believed to be hiding.
The U.S. military investigated that incident, but the two versions of events were never reconciled.
A month later, the U.S. military said its forces accidentally killed two people during a raid in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, and that one of them was later revealed to be an awakening council member.
A bomb attached underneath the vehicle of a Baghdad police colonel blew up on Sunday, killing the officer and wounding two others, security and medical sources told AFP. Lieutenant Colonel Hamed Ibrahim died and two lieutenants in the car were wounded in the blast in western Mansur neighbourhood, they said. An official at Yarmuk hospital confirmed receiving the colonels body.
An AP report said the official, who it identified as Lt Col Muhammad Ibrahim, survived the attack but his driver was killed. Lt Col Ibrahim, director of Iraqs police commandos, an elite special forces group, was heading to work when the bomb exploded around 10am in the Mansour neighbourhood, an officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media. Ibrahim and his bodyguard both survived but his driver was killed, the officer said.
Meanwhile, a mortar round slammed into a street in a northeastern section of the capital, killing an Iraqi soldier on foot patrol, another police officer said. The attack occurred at 9am on Sunday in the Sulaikh area, police said. Three civilians and another soldier were also wounded in the attack, an officer said on the same anonymity condition.
South of Baghdad, an Iraqi policeman was killed in a drive-by shooting on Sunday near Kut, 160 kilometres southeast of the capital, police said. In Mosul, a roadside bomb targeting a US military vehicle wounded two Iraqi civilians, US and Iraqi officials said. No US troops were injured, and the incident was under investigation, said US military spokesman Lt Michael Street.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
One woman was killed and 38 people people were wounded, one critically, in a suicide attack in a Dimona commercial center Monday morning. Police said the attack was carried out by two attackers, but only one succeeded in detonating his explosives. The other terrorist was killed - seconds before he could detonate his explosives belt - by Kobi Mor, a police officer from an elite unit who happened to be on the scene. Magen David Adom ambulances evacuated the wounded to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
Rosa Elberg, a resident of the town, said that the bomber detonated his explosives inside a café. "It is like a war, people are running like crazy," she told Channel 2. "I didn't see anyone suspicious. I heard a boom and my ears are still ringing."
Another eyewitness told Israel Radio that many people were at the commercial center at the time because of the sunny weather. Shalom Bar Avi, a journalist speaking to Channel 10, said "I am here no longer as a journalist but as a simple citizen ... I pray and hope my wife is okay." Bar Avi praised the police's quick response to the attack, and said Mor, the officer who identified the second attacker shot "four or five times ... he took no chances."
Later Mor's heroism was revealed in detail: He shot the terrorist in the head, and when the latter in his last breath still tried to press the detonator button, shot him four more times and killed him. Mor managed to kill the terrorist before he could explode and without hitting his explosive belt, thus preventing a much more devastating attack. A police officer speaking to Channel 10 praised Mor's quick response and said he acted "in the best possible way, all considerations taken into account."
The two bombers entered Israel from Egypt after Hamas blew up the Gaza-Egypt border wall, a spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said.
Abu Fouad, a spokesman for the Fatah-linked organization, said the operation had been planned for a month, but was made possible after Hamas violently opened Gaza's border with Egypt on January 23. Earlier, in an apparent attempt to divert attention from the Gaza connection, Al Aqsa had claimed the bombers were from the West Bank. Southern Israel has been on alert against terror attacks since Hamas breached the border with Egypt.
The last suicide attacker to succeed in penetrating Israel and detonate his explosives was Muhammad Faisal Saksak, on January 29, 2007 in Eilat. Three people were killed in that attack.
This article starring:
Abu Fouad
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Muhammad Faisal Saksak
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 09:19 ||
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#6
Apparently the second bomber was being treated by a lawyer when he was caught in the first explosion. He shirt was opened to check for would and the belt discovered, the policeman saw, and ended it with his gun.
I really like that officer.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/04/2008 23:23 Comments ||
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An Israeli woman was killed and 11 people wounded on Monday in a suicide bombing claimed by Palestinian militants at a shopping centre in the desert town of Dimona, the first such attack in a year. Medics said one suicide bomber was killed in the blast and a second was killed by police shortly after the explosion that rocked the mall in Dimona, site of Israel's top secret nuclear reactor.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group loosely linked to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, claimed joint responsibility with two other groups. And the Palestinian Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip called the attack a "heroic act" and a "natural response to occupation crimes."
The Magen David Adom medical rescue services said in a statement that the blast killed one civilian and wounded 11, including one seriously, while a police officer told Israeli radio that the dead victim was a woman.
An unexploded bomb belt was found at the site of the blast, which ripped through the shopping mall in the town in the Negev desert at 10:30 am (0830 GMT), Magen David said. "Israel will continue to fight terrorism by all necessary means," foreign ministry spokesman Arye Mekel told AFP.
Egyptian and Hamas forces closed the Gaza border on Sunday after reportedly agreeing to control the frontier blown open by Hamas 11 days ago in a bid to break a crippling Israeli blockade.
Metal barriers and rolls of barbed wire were erected across all gaps in the border at the divided town of Rafah, again sealing off Gaza after nearly half the impoverished territorys 1.5 million population flooded into Egypt. No more Palestinians are being allowed in, an Egyptian security source told AFP. One gate remained open to allow Palestinians and Egyptians to return home, but otherwise no pedestrians or vehicles were being allowed to cross, AFP correspondents witnessed.
Dozens of armed and helmeted Hamas men wielded batons at crowds gathered at the border, hoping that the resealed breaches will open just one more time. Everyone needs to leave immediately! If youre not Egyptian, youve got to leave now! the Hamas men yelled in a bid to relieve the crowds near the barrier. On the Egyptian side of Rafah, security forces briefly detained an AFP reporter and photographer, erasing the photographers memory cards and saying journalists were no longer allowed to take pictures of the border.
The Egyptian side was almost entirely deserted, with cars banned around the frontier and in Rafahs town centre unless they were headed home, an AFP correspondent said. People continued to go home from both sides of the border, with a queue of horse- and donkey-drawn carts laden with household goods waiting to cross into Gaza at Brazil Gate. The border breakout on January 23 launched a sprawl of chaos and commerce, with hundreds of thousands of people streaming across in both directions with crates of goods, herds of animals, and plastic jugs of diesel fuel or simply to visit relatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
But the new tunnels are open and operating fine...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/04/2008 7:51 Comments ||
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#2
And the weapons are already through.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/04/2008 9:04 Comments ||
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#3
Hamas broke down an Israeli-made wall. They can go through this one whenever it will profit them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/04/2008 13:09 Comments ||
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#6
Can only hope the Israli walls have seismic monitors. And charges or other counter tunnel program in addition to informants. Also flamethrowers. I think that would slow a mob down. Then all they have to do is worry about the ones who come in from Egypt.
Sunday night, Feb. 3, a routine Israeli military border patrol came under gunfire outside the village. They soldiers fired back. The Lebanese reported two dead on their side of the border. There were no Israeli casualties. Israeli reinforcements arrived on the scene. This was the first cross-border shooting incident from Lebanon since the end of the war of summer 2006.
One person was killed and 11 other persons were injured when suspected insurgents detonated a bomb at a pier in Thailand's far southern province Pattani, where officials and local people were holding a fish-releasing ceremony on Monday.
According to news network The Nation, the explosion happened at about 1:20 p.m. (0620 GMT) while the district chief Wirat Prasettoof Mayo district, Pattani was leading local people and officials to a raft where they were supposed to release fish into a canal in Ban Kasoh village, Mayo district, in a ceremony that marked the opening of a religious boarding school for young Muslim children on Monday. About 1,000 local people took part in the ceremony. Wirat was one of two persons who were severely injured in the explosion.
Earlier on Monday in nearby province Yala, three policemen and three female civilians were injured when insurgents detonated a bomb aimed at the police officers. The explosion occurred in front of a shop in Muang district (provincial seat) at noon.
At least 12 civilians were killed and 100 injured as a suspected woman cadre of the LTTE blew herself up in the crowded Fort Railway Station here on Sunday afternoon. The blast, coming on the eve of the 60th Independence Day, is the fourth in a series targeting civilians since the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the government and the Tigers ended on January 16.
The security forces have stepped up deployment and vigil in the national capital in the wake of the explosion and a sense of anxiety and fear has gripped the citizens. The government has blamed the Tigers for the blast and said these were acts of desperation to divert attention from the setbacks they received on the battlefield in recent days. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has not responded to the allegation.
The police said the explosion was carried out by a female suicide-bomber who got down from a train in the station minutes before 2 p.m. The impact of the blast was so powerful that the main platform of the station was strewn with limbs of those killed. According to the authorities in the Colombo National Hospital, where most of the injured are being treated, 10 persons are in critical condition.
Quoting defence observers, the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry said the recent attacks by the LTTE in the south bore clear indications of the outfits desperation over the ignominious defeats that it was encountering on the northern battlefronts. It also highlighted the need for national solidarity to bring an end to this brutal terrorism, a statement said.
In a report on the blast, the pro-LTTE TamilNet said: The blast comes a day before Sri Lankas 60th Independence Day celebrations amid speculation of Colombo embarking on a full-fledged war on Vanni, stepping up aerial bombardment and artillery barrage.
Earlier in the day, at least seven civilians were injured in a low intensity grenade explosion inside the Dehiwala Zoo on the outskirts of Colombo. Seven persons, including two children, received minor injuries and were rushed to the general hospital at Kalubowila when a hand-grenade exploded inside the zoo at 10.35 a.m.
In the north, the security forces claimed to have killed scores of Tiger cadres.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Iran tested a missile capable of carrying satellites into space, Iranian state television said Monday, as part of a program to launch a research satellite in the near future. The rocket was launched from a new Iranian space center, inaugurated by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The report claimed that the satellite itself would be launched by 2009. It is reported to be called Omid which means "Hope", and is said to be a low-altitude satellite.
A successful satellite launch would testify to a dramatic improvement in Teheran's missile capability. Ahmadinejad was present at the launch site, and gave the order for the launch himself.
"Our presence in space is a necessity", said Ahmadinejad at the ceremony. "Any country that respects itself should control the most advanced technology...we are grateful to God for witnessing the first and determined step towards an Iranian satellite."
Iranian news agency IRNA said the satellite was intended for research, but did not detail any technical specifications, raising suspicions that it might also be capable of being used for intelligence and other strategic purposes.
The report came on the heels of a successful Israeli satellite launch in January. The Israeli TecSar satellite, launched from India, began transferring its first footage to the control center in Yehud over the weekend.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/04/2008 08:35 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
However, Ali Akbar Golrou, executive director of the same facility, was later quoted by Fars news agency as saying the craft launched by was a sub-orbital rocket for scientific research.
"What was announced by the head of the research centre was the news of launching this sounding rocket," Mr Golrou said.
It would not remain in orbit but could rise to about 150km (94 miles) before a parachute-assisted descent to Earth.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/04/2008 10:02 Comments ||
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#2
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) and Armed forces joint chief of staff Hasan Firouzabadi (L) wear 3-D glasses to watch a program about a rocket as they visit the aerospace industries center of the defense ministry in Tehran, Iran on February 4, 2008. Iran on Monday launched its first space research unit in the presence of President Ahmadinejad.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/04/2008 15:19 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Pro Tip: Never be photographed with funny glasses.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
02/04/2008 17:33 Comments ||
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Israel Defense Forces troops exchanged fire last night with two armed men trying to infiltrate Israel's northern border with Lebanon. Security sources in Beirut said a Lebanese citizen was killed in the incident and another was seriously wounded.
According to reports, IDF forces opened fire on the armed men when they noticed them trying to cross the border into Israel in the northern village of Ghajar. An IDF spokesman said the Lebanese men were attempting to smuggle drugs into Israel. Security sources in Beirut said one Lebanese citizen was killed by IDF gunfire from across the border. Lebanon's state-run news agency said a person was wounded near the village of Wazzani in the southeastern corner of Lebanon from IDF gunfire across the border.
The casualties were taken to a hospital in the Lebanese town of Marjayoun, where officials there confirmed they had received one body and another person wounded. IDF troops suffered no casualties in the incident.
These were the first clashes of the kind since the Second Lebanon War, which broke out after Hezbollah militants crossed the border with Israel and abducted IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. In the last 18 months, since the end of the war, there have been two incidents of Katyusha rockets launched at northern Israel. No casualties were reported in either incident.
Naim Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy secretary general, last week threatened to carry out additional kidnappings of IDF soldiers. Qassem also reiterated Hezbollah's stance that it would not give up on a single prisoner it had demanded from Israel.
Until 1967, Ghajar was a Syrian village on the Syrian-Lebanese border. It was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War. Half of the town is under Israeli control and the other half is in Lebanon. The last incident of the kind in Ghajar was in 2005, when Hezbollah militants attempted to abduct IDF soldiers stationed in the area. Paratroopers thwarted the kidnapping by opening fire and killing three Hezbollah militants.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/04/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#2
Howard Hughes designs the steel underwire push-up bra for sweater girl Jane Russell to wear in The Outlaw. Hughes, an airplane designer, adopts modern technologies to up-lift the contour of the bosom. The film's release is delayed for three years because of Russell's sensuous portrayal, and Hughes finally decides to release it without a Motion Picture Code seal. It marks the beginning of the end of film censorship.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/04/2008 7:20 Comments ||
Top||
#9
he film's release is delayed for three years because of Russell's sensuous portrayal
Yes, she was everafter none as the Queen of the motionless picture.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
02/04/2008 12:50 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 roadside bomb killed at least eight women travelling in a minibus in the south of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday, witnesses said. The driver, conductor and two other passengers in the bus survived, escaping with minor injuries, witness Farah Mohamed said. At least 8 women were killed when a minibus carrying several passengers was blown up by a roadside bomb blast, she told Reuters, adding that she had seen the bodies, some of them blown to pieces. Police spokesman Abdulahi Ibrahim Omar confirmed the blast but had no further details. It looked like a remote-controlled bomb that missed its target - a government pickup truck carrying a number of soldiers passed there seconds after, witness Ahmed Jimale said.
On the basis of avowals and testimonies made by several arrested terrorists, the security services in the province of Boumerdes, 50 km east of Algiers, have decided to close to traffic up to 12 communal roads in an attempt to ward off potential suicide bombings.
Security forces, in collaboration with political authorities, have destroyed militants hideouts in Darra Adam Khel and seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition.
Unidentified people kidnapped two personnel of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) late on Saturday, sources said. ICRC media officer in Islamabad, Sitara Jabeen, confirmed the abduction of two officials, along with a jeep, while they were going to the Afghan border at Torkham for custom clearance of some goods bound for Afghanistan.
Two bomb explosions damaged a union council nazims house in the Kooza Bandai area of Kabal tehsil of Swat district on Sunday. No casualties were reported. The bombs were planted near Nazim Hidayat Ali Khans house, sources told Daily Times. They were detonated with a remote control device, they said. Also on Sunday, the curfew in Swat was relaxed from 6am to 8pm, during which all markets and business centres in Mingora remained open. Not too many people were seen in the markets, as cold, rain and snow forced most people to stay indoors.
Three suspected terrorists arrested in Karnataka have told the police that they planned to set off explosions at important IT and tourist spots in Bangalore and Goa. A team from the Corps of Detectives has taken over investigation of the case. 
A bomb attached underneath the vehicle of a Baghdad police colonel blew up on Sunday, killing the officer and wounding two others, security and medical sources told AFP. Lieutenant Colonel Hamed Ibrahim died and two lieutenants in the car were wounded in the blast in western Mansur neighbourhood, they said. An official at Yarmuk hospital confirmed receiving the colonels body.
At least 12 civilians were killed and 100 injured as a suspected woman cadre of the LTTE blew herself up in the crowded Fort Railway Station here on Sunday afternoon. The blast, coming on the eve of the 60th Independence Day, is the fourth in a series targeting civilians since the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the government and the Tigers ended on January 16. 
Israel Defense Forces troops exchanged fire last night with two armed men trying to infiltrate Israel's northern border with Lebanon. Security sources in Beirut said a Lebanese citizen was killed in the incident and another was seriously wounded. 
