France is seriously considering a military contribution to southern Afghanistan, fuelling optimism NATO won't have to do without Canadian troops in volatile Kandahar. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is said to be seriously considering Canada's position that it would withdraw its 2,500 combat troops from Kandahar next year unless another NATO country can supply an additional 1,000 troops.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke to Mr. Sarkozy on Tuesday by telephone and relayed the core demand of the report by the independent panel headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley: that Canadian troops would not stay in southern Afghanistan past February 2009 unless the extra troops were found.
In Vilnius, Lithuania, where NATO defence begin two days of meetings, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is expected to urge the alliance's 26 members to show greater solidarity and end the public finger-pointing.
There are fears the public spat could bury recent good news, from NATO's perspective, such as Belgium's commitment of four fighter jets and an extra 140 soldiers this year. There is also talk one or two other countries might announce larger contributions to the war effort.
"This is a critical week for the alliance," Christopher Langton, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Agence France Presse.
France and Germany, which have about 4,500 troops between them in less volatile parts of Afghanistan, are facing increasing pressure within NATO for more troops in Kandahar, where Canada and its British, U.S. and Dutch allies are doing the bulk of the front-line fighting against the Taliban insurgency. Germany has flatly rejected redeploying any of its 3,200 troops from its area of responsibility in northern Afghanistan, or adding extra to the south.
France, however, is considering adding to its 1,300 Afghanistan deployment, most of which is based in Kabul. "People are optimistic Canadians will get the troops. The French are the obvious choice," said a well-placed western official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. A spokesman for the French Embassy in Ottawa said any decisions about further troop deployments were weeks away.
#4
Canada sacrificed about 100,000 men in two world wars for France. It took Canada's parliament about 30 seconds to decide to enter those two wars. How many years did it take France to decide to send a few scraggly troops to help Canada in Afghanistan?
#9
True, liberalhawk, but given that the German's chose to stake all on the wrong principle, they deserve it. Let them try to find a different principle to hide behind in the next crisis.*
*Unfair and unwise, I realize, but I'm in a mood today, and the Germans worked long and hard to box themselves into this corner. When they fuss that their taxes are going to support unemployed Frenchmen on the dole, or perhaps job losses from a strengthened Euro, well that's the price subject peoples pay in an empire.
#11
Thinking, Might, and Will send troops are three entirely different things.
Wake me up when any French actually show up on the battlefield.
This is just talk for the news reporters to OOOH and AAAH, over.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/07/2008 12:57 Comments ||
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#12
Will they send in the Foreign Legion?
Then will they actually be "French" troops?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/07/2008 13:14 Comments ||
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#14
I just don't understand why the US and NATO (yes 2/3 are there to drink beer and work on their tans) are putting so many resources into Afghanistan. It's the least important battlefield in the WOT. Equip and pay the Tadjiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras a few hundred million dollars per year to thump the Pashtoons, Arabs and Pakis and steal their women. Hell, they'd do it ammo and beer money.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2008 17:36 Comments ||
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#15
Will they send in the Foreign Legion?
Then will they actually be "French" troops?
A number of soldiers and NCOs plus all the officers in the Forteign Legion are actually French. Also non Foreign Legion French ground troops have been operating against the Taliban for years. Some of them even died in action. Nice to see you spitting on their graces.
Six suspects appeared before an investigating judge on Wednesday over deadly twin truck bombings in December at a U.N. office and a government building in Algiers, the Interior Ministry said. The ministry also said the suspected ringleader behind the attacks, identified as Bouzegza Abderahmane, was killed during a Jan. 28 sweep by security forces in Souk el-Had, a section of the Boumerdes region east of the capital.
Security concerns have been high in Algeria since the Dec. 11 suicide bombings struck U.N. offices and the Constitutional Council building, killing at least 37 people including 17 U.N. workers. The dual attacks were the most serious in a recent wave of violence signaling that Islamic fighters are regrouping in the North African country. An al-Qaida affiliate in Algeria has claimed responsibility.
The ministry, which identified the six only by their first initials and surnames, said they were computer expert F. Yacine; real estate agent K. Ahmed; delivery man B. Amine, and three business owners: B. Fouad, K. Youcef and M. Mustapha. The ministry did not say what the next step in the prosecution would be, nor did it specify when the six had been detained.
Abderahmane, known better as the "emir" Bouzegza, was said to be a highly sought target by Algerian authorities and the subject of 43 search domestic warrants over the last decade. He was believed to be a leader of the El-Farouk brigade, a wing of al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa the new name of a longtime insurgent group in Algeria.
The ministry said El-Farouk was also behind a Dec. 10 attack on two vehicles carrying employees of an affiliate of U.S. company Halliburton near Algiers, killing an Algerian driver and injuring nine others. "All the bombings recently committed recently in the Algiers area have been elucidated," said Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, quoted by the official news agency APS.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called in December for an independent panel to investigate the twin bombings. The Algerian government has opposed a U.N. investigation, saying it was already investigating the attacks.
This article starring:
Bouzegza Abderahmane
al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa
El-Farouk brigade
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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A WOMAN stabbed two pilots and threatened to blow up a plane during a harrowing mid-air drama on a New Zealand domestic flight early today, police said.
The pilots reported that a passenger attacked them in the cockpit, inflicting minor injuries, before making threats that she had a bomb. One of the other passengers on board - who included an Australian - was also hurt.
Police said a mayday call was received at 7.40am (5.40am AEDT) from an Air National flight heading from the provincial town of Blenheim to the main South Island airport in Christchurch. Inspector Kieren Kortegast said a woman attacked the two pilots before being restrained. The plane landed safely in Christchurch 20 minutes later and the passengers were taken to a private room. A 33-year-old Blenheim woman of Somali descent was taken into custody.
Flights to and from Christchurch were suspended for two hours while the aircraft was searched and the bomb squad defused a device thought to have been in the woman's bag. Police then said there were confident there was no bomb on board.
An Australian from Victoria was on board the flight, as were four New Zealand passengers, an Indian and the alleged hijacker. One pilot suffered severe cuts to his hand and the other had less severe cuts to his foot, police said. Another passenger was cut, as was the woman who sparked the drama.
How the classified military documents from Iraq, which named the coordinates of where the Army suspected weapons of mass destruction to be hidden, ended up in an Arabic translators apartment on Hoyt Street in Brooklyn, is clear.
Not likely to be known anytime soon is what, if anything, the army contractor did with the documents.
The U.S. attorneys office in Brooklyn, which is prosecuting the case, appears to have little direct evidence that Noureddine Malki passed information on to the insurgency, either during his time in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, or upon his return to America in 2005. But it has raised the possibility that he may have done so. The government has said Malki regularly called phone numbers connected to insurgents and took bribes of at least $11,500 from Sunni tribal leaders. Rope, Tree and so on
#3
Seems like this boy might be in store for some enhanced talkings to.
I seem to recall someone referring to the Muslim translator departments (FBI) as the mole hole. Which begs the question, how many others don't we know about.
WASHINGTON U.S. military advisers are helping the Pakistanis double the size of their elite commando force in an ongoing effort to blunt the rising threat of terrorist groups and anti-government militants operating in the country's unruly tribal areas, a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday.
They'll probably all end up on the border with India
The American military presence is fewer than 100 personnel, said Mike Vickers, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, and is focused on what he called "targeted training." That includes assisting Pakistan's Special Service Group and teaching specialized fighting techniques, such as helicopter assaults.
"elite" "commando" units of the Pakistani army don't know how to perform heliborne assaults?
"It's been ongoing for a while," Vickers said during a meeting with reporters. "They're expanding their capability substantially they're essentially doubling their force. So we're helping them with that expansion, and trying to improve their capabilities at the same time. There's also some aviation training. It's been ongoing for several years."
The number of U.S. forces in Pakistan is a sensitive issue. Many Pakistanis openly support or sympathize with al-Qaida, the Taliban or militant groups and would view a sizable American presence in their country as an unwelcome intrusion. That means the United States won't conduct military operations on its own inside Pakistan unless President Pervez Musharraf's government requests such direct support.
"We have to be careful conducting operations in a sovereign country, particularly one that's a friend of ours and one that has given us a lot of support," Dell Dailey, the State Department's counterterrorism chief, said last month. "The blowback would be pretty serious."
U.S. intelligence believes al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is in the tribal area, a large swath of rugged land that runs along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
Defense officials told Congress on Wednesday that al-Qaida is operating in safe havens in "under-governed regions" of Pakistan posing a direct threat to Europe, the United States and the Pakistan government itself. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, predicted in written testimony that the next attack on the U.S. would likely be launched by terrorists in that region.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he believes that Pakistan understands the threat al-Qaida poses to its government, but is sensitive to an American military presence. Gates has said the U.S. remains ready, willing and able to provide military support and conduct joint operations with the Pakistanis. Until Pakistan "sort of gets on top of the whole situation and what their needs are, I think we're kind of in a standby mode at this point," he said.
The top American commander in the region, Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, was in Pakistan in January meeting with senior Pakistani officials, including the new army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani. Following the meeting, Fallon told reporters that Pakistani officials were more willing to seek U.S. assistance.
Mullen is scheduled to travel to Pakistan later this week, Vickers said.
Echoing testimony delivered to Congress on Tuesday by U.S. intelligence chief Mike McConnell, Vickers said the unsettled tribal region "remains a source of sanctuary for the al-Qaida senior leadership."
Vickers gave the Pakistani military high marks for keeping al-Qaida in check in Pakistan's cities and other "settled" locations. "They have been less effective in the tribal areas of western Pakistan, and that's the problem we face right now," Vickers said. "It's getting worse in Pakistan, I think, it's fair to say."
If U.S. forces teamed up with the Pakistanis, their support would be "by, with and through" the Pakistani troops, Vickers said. The phrase refers to a key tenet of unconventional warfare and underscores the disguised approach the United States would take. "We have certain capabilities that we can do in a low-visibility manner that can enhance the operations of Pakistani forces," Vickers said. Those capabilities could include night vision devices, air transport, and sophisticated gear for gathering intelligence and conducting surveillance.
Vickers, a former Green Beret and ex-CIA agent, took over last year as the Pentagon's top special operations official. He has substantial experience in Afghanistan. In 1984, at age 31, he engineered the clandestine arming of the Afghan rebels who drove the Soviet Union out of their country nearly a quarter century ago in what was the largest covert action in CIA history.
Then, as now, Vickers maintains that success depends not on a large U.S. military presence, but on the right mix of military backing, economic support, and political will. "Surges of forces create important but temporary effects," Vickers said. "I don't think we're going to defeat the insurgency (in Afghanistan) over the long haul with a large foreign presence. I think substantial foreign assistance and continued engagement is critical. But in the long run it will be the Afghans that do it with our support."
Army Gen. Dan McNeill, the top U.S. officer in Afghanistan, on Wednesday challenged the widely held view that the insurgency there is worsening.
Vickers had a different view. "The insurgency has certainly picked up in Afghanistan in the past couple of years, and the link with narcotics has made for a challenge," he said, referring to the country's escalating production of opium, the main ingredient in heroin.
Afghanistan cultivated a record 477,000 acres of opium in 2007, a 14 percent increase over the previous year. Total production, spurred by unusually high rainfall, increased even further, by 34 percent, according to a new report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
"Defeating insurgencies takes a period of time," Vickers said. "I am still very optimistic about the long haul in Afghanistan."
Posted by: john frum ||
02/07/2008 16:25 ||
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#1
Don't forget the mosque blowing and madrassa dozing training evolutions.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2008 16:51 Comments ||
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PESHAWAR: Following unconfirmed reports of killing of a high-profile al-Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libi, there are now rumours that an American al-Qaeda militant Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, had been killed in the alleged Predator attack by the US on a house in Mir Ali, North Waziristan, a few days back.32-year-old Adam Gadahn, who is an American citizen belonging to southern California, has been accused by the US of praising the perpetrators of September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington and attending al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistani tribal areas.
According to sources, American officials who are yet to publicly confirm the killing of Abu Laith al-Libi, are reportedly sharing information with western media that most likely another most wanted figure, Adam Gadahn, has also been killed in the air strike by the CIA-operated unmanned drone on a house in Khushali Torikhel village near Mir Ali town. Pity. I was hoping for something slower and more painful
Hopefully, it's taken him from then til now to shuffle off the mortal coil.
According to sources, the American al-Qaeda militant, who has been reportedly spending much of his time in Afghanistan and Pakistani tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, had reached Mir Ali for an important meeting with other senior al-Qaeda commanders for planning the so-called spring offensive against US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.
However, there were no details whether he had arrived in the town when a house reportedly housing some senior al-Qaeda operatives including Abu Laith al-Libi, was blitzed. US military officials based in Afghanistan are reportedly collecting details about those killed in the attack on the house and in this regard two of their spy planes continued flying over the same area even after the tragic incident.
Local tribesmen, who were kept at bay by hundreds of armed militants from visiting the house until all the bodies, mostly dismembered, were retrieved, said that US spy planes might have taken pictures of the entire rescue operation as well as of the funeral ceremony.
Like US officials, Pakistani authorities have been constantly keeping silence over what had happened in their jurisdictions. It may be recalled that the US State Department had offered US$ one million reward for capture of Adam Gadahn. However, some military officials felt that declaring Gadahn as dead in the Mir Ali incident, the US wanted him to speak for his defence or make some telephone calls so that they target him like rest of al-Qaeda operatives. This is a report from a Pakistani paper, so add salt to taste.
#2
Adam Gadahn, has also been killed in the air strike by the CIA-operated unmanned drone on a house in Khushali Torikhel village near Mir Ali town.
Pity. I was hoping for something slower and more painful
I'll be happy if he died quickly - man, im such a liberal ;)
#6
Local tribesmen, who were kept at bay by hundreds of armed militants
It was a target rich environment and we didn't take advantage of it? Sort of the like the 2 bomb technique of the terrorists....
#14
A nice touch of irony is that the hellfire missile that (may have) killed this traitor would have been partially funded with taxes paid by his parents.
#17
Missed a hell of an opportunity (How may is that now?) to really put a hurting on al-qaeda. CYA medals w/ white feather clusters for everyone in the chain of command including the prez.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2008 15:21 Comments ||
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#18
Elvis, how are you sure he wasn't someone else's virgin?
PMFJI, but just look at the guy. What woman could possibly resist his, er, charms.
Gadahn's Jewish paternal grandfather, Carl Pearlman, was a prominent surgeon and on the Board of Directors of the Anti-Defamation League; his paternal grandmother, Agnes Branch, was an editor for The Chronicle Christian Newspaper.
Gadahn's father, originally Phil Pearlman, grew up in Orange County, California. He was involved in the counterculture movement at the University of California at Irvine, and before Adam's birth became a self-styled religious Christian. He and his wife Jennifer changed their name to Gadahan, after the Biblical warrior Gidon or Gideon.
Gadahn was born in Oregon and raised and homeschooled through high school by his parents on an isolated farm in Southern California. He played Little League baseball and participated in Christian homeschool support groups. As an adolescent he became very involved in the Death metal community, making contact with fans and musicians through alternative magazines. During the summer of 1993, he formed his own one-man band called Aphasia.
Gadahn contributed music reviews and artwork to a zine called Xenocide. Sample excerpts include this from a review of Acts of the Unspeakable by the band Autopsy released on the Peaceville record label:
The Bay Area quartet crank it up to a good fast grind on many of these tunes, notably `Tortured Moans of Agony,` Battery Acid Enema`, Blackness Within` and `Skullptures` ... This is an excellent release from some Death Metal pioneers!
and for an EP released by the band General Surgery:
This is basically a Swedish `supergroup` of death, featuring members of Dismember, Afflicted and Crematory ... Lyrically, the quote on the back cover pretty much sums it up: `Murder is the only way to kill time.'
In 1995, at age 16, Gadahn moved in with his grandparents in Santa Ana, California, where he worked in a computer store and explored the Internet.
#20
Going to have to re-name the Predator 'Dorothy' if it's going to be dropping houses on wicked witches (warlocks) of the west. Who got his curly-toed ruby slippers?
#22
Gadahn's Jewish paternal grandfather, Carl Pearlman, was a prominent surgeon and on the Board of Directors of the Anti-Defamation League; his paternal grandmother, Agnes Branch, was an editor for The Chronicle Christian Newspaper.
#25
...I want him to have lived JUST long enough to have heard the sound of the United States Air Force reminding him that you can run, but you'll just die tired.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/07/2008 19:23 Comments ||
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#26
I guess his destiny to serve on the Berkeley City Council may not play out smoothly after all.
#27
For the record, while California has been called the land of fruits and nuts, those of us from the OC (aka behind the Orange Curtain) tend to be on the "right" side of things. Think Reagan Country.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
02/07/2008 20:28 Comments ||
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#28
and those of us in San Diego County, proud home to a large part of your military say "F*ck you", Redneck Jim, to your characterization. Idiot
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2008 20:32 Comments ||
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#29
They really should split Cali into two states. The northern and southern parts are so different. Berkeley, of course, should be its own planet.
#35
US military officials based in Afghanistan are reportedly collecting details about those killed in the attack on the house and in this regard two of their spy planes continued flying over the same area even after the tragic incident.
Did I read this right? Called this a tragic incident?
The Jamaat-I-Islami activists clashed with the Police on the Kashmir Solidarity Day here Tuesday when they tried to march towards the residence of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary, in the Judges Colony. The activists assembled at the China Chowk on the call given by Jamaat-I-Islami (JI) to participate in the annual Kashmir Solidarity Day march.
Speaking on the occasion, Amir JI Qazi Hussain Ahmad condemned the government for what he said attack on judiciary. Qazi termed the steps to remove the pre-Nov 3 judiciary as unconstitutional and added that the rulers have put the country on the brink of disaster. He said that Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary was still the Chief Justice of the country. He vowed to continue struggle for the independence of judiciary in the country. Qazi Hussain Ahmad lashed out at President Musharraf for putting the Kashmir issue in cold storage. Musharraf has put the Kashmir issue on the backburner which is tantamount to stab the Kashmiri people in their back, he said. Qazi rejected 4-point formula by President Musharraf to resolve Kashmir issue as tantamount to the division of the Kashmir territory. He said that he did not wish ill about India but urged her to give Kashmiris their right of self-independence. He appealed to the World to help stop Indian brutalities in the Held Kashmir. Qazi Hussain Ahmad also lauded the sacrifices rendered by the Kashmiri people and hoped that one day their dream for independence will become reality.
After the address, the JI activists tried to march towards the official residence of the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary but the security officials stopped them near Parade Ground. JI activists pelted stones at the police and the police baton charged the protestors and fired tear gas shells. However, they succeeded in reaching in front of the Sindh House near Judges Colony where the authorities did not allow them to move forward. Speakers on the occasion again criticized the government for using force against the activists.
Continued on Page 49
The State police have launched a hunt for Adnan, former regional convenor of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), who is suspected to be one of the key persons in the terrorist module recently busted by the Davangere police.
As part of the operations, the staff from the Anti-Terrorist Squad searched a house in HAL police station limits in Bangalore. However, they could not find Adan there, sources in the police told The Hindu on Tuesday.
The search for Adnan, a native of Bijapur, has been intensified mainly to ascertain the whereabouts of the consignment of firearms that was supplied to the terror module by its handlers in Pakistan and also to unearth the terror network in the State, the sources said.
The police learnt about the activities of Adnan after they arrested his accomplice and a SIMI activist Mohammed Asif, a final year MBBS student of Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences in Hubli. But Adnan had gone underground by then. After scanning the mobile phone details of Asif, the investigators found that Adnan had spoken to him from a public call office in Annasandrapalya in HAL police station limits in Bangalore. The police squad questioned the phone booth owner and traced the house of Adnans brother who lives in Annasandrapalya. The search of the house did not yield anything significant, the sources said.
The arms consignment, which was reportedly in Asifs possession, was shifted to an undisclosed place following the arrest of the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Riyazuddin Nasir and his aide Asadullah Abubaker in Honnali in Davangere district last month, they said.
According to the sources in the Bijapur district police, a police team from Davangere visited Bijapur city four days ago and searched for weapons at a house situated near Remand Home in Gol Gumbaz police station limits. The house belongs to an engineering graduate who lives in Bangalore. The Bijapur police said they had no clues about the terror suspect Adnan, though three persons with the same name were studying in a local medical college.
Meanwhile, the Judicial Magistrate First Class Court in Honnali on Tuesday permitted the police to subject the arrested persons to narco analysis.
They will undergo brain mapping and polygraph tests also at the State Forensic Science Laboratory in Bangalore. The court has remanded the two in the custody of the Corps of Detectives (CoD) till Sunday.
Hubli-Dharwad Police Commissioner Narayana Nadumani said that a CoD team, led by Inspector-General of Police M.R. Pujar and Deputy Inspector-General of Police Alok Kumar, arrived in Hubli on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Eight soldiers including Kohat General Officer Commanding (GOC) Major General Javed Sultan were killed when an army helicopter crashed in South Waziristan on Wednesday.
The US-made Bell 412 came down near Tanai in Ahmedzai Wazir areas minutes after it took off from Wana at 2:40pm. We lost seven commissioned and one non-commissioned officer in the crash, army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told Daily Times. APP news agency said the eighth soldier was a junior commissioned officer.
Maj Gen Athar Abbas ruled out the possibility of hostile action. It was a technical fault that caused the crash, he told Daily Times.
Inshallah maintenance strikes again.
Maj Gen Javed Sultan was in charge of military operations against tribal and foreign militants linked to Al Qaeda and Taliban. Brigadier Afzal Cheema, Brigadier Saeed Khan, Lieutenant Colonel Omar Farooq, Captain Shehzad, Captain Naveed (pilot), Captain Haroon (pilot) and crew chief Naik Amir also died in the crash. The army spokesman said rescue teams had found the crash site (near Wana-Jandola Road) and were retrieving the bodies. The rescue teams are on the site and busy in the rescue operations.
The crash comes at a time when the military was pushing hard against Baitullah Mehsud-led militants in South Waziristan. A military official said the militants did not have the capability to shoot down the helicopter. We have received no information so far that they have a weapon that can bring down a helicopter, he said on condition of anonymity. In 2006, militants were able to damage a door of a combat helicopter in North Waziristan using an improvised rocket. The helicopter reached its destination safe.
President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro and Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Kayani expressed grief on the crash and condoled with the families, APP reported. In his message to the bereaved families, President Musharraf called the incident a great loss, of professionals who lost their lives with their boots on. A helicopter escorting President Musharraf to Azad Kashmir in October last year crashed and burst into flames, killing four troops. Musharrafs own helicopter was not affected. Six soldiers were killed when another Mi-17 crashed days after the catastrophic October 2005 earthquake.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I thought it was SOP to NEVER let two or more senior officers travel on the same transport?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/07/2008 13:16 Comments ||
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#2
they had to - too hard to explain simultaneous maintenance failures on two or more helos...
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2008 14:43 Comments ||
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#3
So which part failed?
The grenade pin.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2008 17:27 Comments ||
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Protesters thronged the streets and pelted police and Rangers personnel with stones on Wednesday after news leaked of the murder of Awami National Party (ANP) Sindh Vice President Fazlur Rehman Akakhel. A motorcyclist murdered Fazl by shooting him in the head, killing him instantly.
Following the murder, the Pakhtoon-dominated Sohrab Goth erupted in rioting. Officers fired tear gas, but failed to deter the protesters. Three vehicles were also burnt near New Sabzi Mandi. Separately, a stray bullet killed 31-year-old Imtiaz Hussain during the rioting. ANP leader Amin Khattak condemned the murder, appealing party workers and activists to be patient because he did not want violence to spread in the province.
Separately, two bikers killed Punjabi-Pukhtoon Ittehad Karachi Vice President Zakir Khan. Site Town SP Athar Rasheed Butt alleged that Zakir was a gang leader and had been killed by a rival group.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Awami NP - any connection to old Bangla Awami League?
Pashtun dominated section of Karachi? Punjabi-Pashtun? Hard enough to kinda try to follow Paki national politics, Karachi politics seems even more byzantine
Suspected militants have sent a letter to local English daily the Frontier Times, warning it to report events correctly and mend its ways within five days, sources said on Wednesday.
We want to please God by killing you and you have been granted five days to correct yourself."
We want to please God by killing you and you have been granted five days to correct yourself, otherwise you would not even have time to repent, the letter reads. A newspaper staff, seeking anonymity, said they had received a threatening letter from Markazi Tehreek Taliban Sararogha asking them to avoid haram (forbidden) acts in the newspaper or it would be bombed.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
I think there are several here that would like to also see the media 'mend its ways;' however I also suspect that the meaning of 'way mending' is different in America and turbantown...
Police are looking for at least four suspected key terrorists, including a deputy of killed Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah, in a probe into the suicide attack on a Pakistan Air Force bus in Sargodha on November 1 last year, sources told Daily Times. Identified as Ustad Rabbani from Talagang, the suspect is believed to be the second-in-command of Dadullah, who died in fighting NATO forces in Afghanistan on May 12, 2007.
Other wanted suspects include Tayyab (who investigators said was trained in making bombs and an expert attack planner, and according to one investigator, he was also involved in the suicide attack outside Lahore High Court on January 10), Azmari (also known as Luqmani, a wheatish African-looking long-haired man who speaks Pushto and Arabic, and is believed to finance terrorists) and one Mohsin.
Police had initially held five suspects in connection with the Sargodha attack, identified as Umar Farooq, Abrar, Sikandar, Khalid Usman and Qari Asghar. Umar Farooq admitted he could make bombs, jackets used in suicide attacks, remote-controlled detonators, toxic injections and poison that could be mixed in water. He was known as the machine of bombers, investigators said. A two-inches-by-six-inches bomb was seized from a location he disclosed.
Sikandar said he was assigned by Mohsin to attack the office of the Faisalabad superintendent of Traffic Police. He said Mohsin assigned another person to attack a deputy inspector general of police. Qari Asghar, who lived in a madrassa in a village 16 kilometres from Sargodha, had provided the empty milk cans which were filled with explosives to carry out the attack, investigators said.
Information revealed by the men led the police to other suspects including Fahad Basra, the nephew of killed sectarian terrorist Riaz Basra, on January 26. Investigators said Fahad had received from Umar two jackets for suicide bombers for a plan to kill a leader of another sect.
Two suspected would-be suicide bombers were then held from Kabirwala and Jhang. Police seized jackets to be used in suicide attacks, ball bearings and nails, detonators and explosives from them. Investigators said one of them had said four other men had entered Punjab with the intention to carry out suicide attacks on politicians two of them in Lahore, and two in southern Punjab. Investigators said the network was highly organised and were possibly linked to Baitullah Mehsud and Al Qaeda. They said the group was also getting financial and other support from outside Pakistan.
This article starring:
ABRAR
Taliban
AZMARI
Taliban
BAITULLAH MEHSUD
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
FAHAD BASRA
Taliban
KHALID USMAN
Taliban
MULLAH DADULLAH
Taliban
OMAR FARUQ
Taliban
QARI ASGHAR
Taliban
RIAZ BASRA
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
SIKANDAR
Taliban
TAIYAB
Taliban
USTAD RABANI
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Qasim Toori and Danish alias Talha, alleged activists of the banned Jundullah, were remanded to the custody of the Saudabad police till Feb 18 by Administrative Judge (AJ) for Anti-Terrorism Courts, Justice Khwaja Naveed Ahmed, on Wednesday in a bank robbery case. The same set of accused men was also produced before Judicial Magistrate East Maqbool Memon who also remanded them to the physical custody of the Saudabad police in another bank dacoity and kidnapping case till Feb 15.
According to the FIR, the men opened fire, killing Police Constable Muhammad Amjad, security guard Muhammad Ashraf and Iftikhar Hussain, a passerby. ASI Liaquat Ali Ghangro, HC Shehzad Khan were injured when the accused opened fire on interception while fleeing. The police also obtained their remand from the court of the Judicial Magistrate East in the kidnapping case of Abid Qureshi who was found chained from their den in Shah Latif Town.
This article starring:
Abid Qureshi
ABU BAKAR
Jundullah
AJAB KHAN ALIAS ZAKIR
Jundullah
BADSHAH KHAN
Jundullah
DANISH ALIAS TALHA
Jundullah
Iftikhar Hussain
IQBAL ALIAS REHAN
Jundullah
ISHAQ ALIAS GUL KHAN
Jundullah
JUNAID FARUQUI ALIAS IBRAHIM
Jundullah
Khwaja Naveed Ahmed
Liaquat Ali Ghangro
Maqbool Memon
MEHMUD ALIAS OMAR
Jundullah
Muhammad Amjad
Muhammad Ashraf
Mumtaz Mustafa Ghazali
OBAIDULLAH
Jundullah
QASIM TURI
Jundullah
SHAKIR
Jundullah
Shehzad Khan
TAIYAB DAD
Jundullah
YAQUB ABDULLAH
Jundullah
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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LANDI KOTAL: At least three people died and as many were injured in separate incidents in Khyber Agency on Wednesday, police sources said. Arab Din and Amin Jan were killed and Baz Mohammad was injured when a bomb exploded at a godown of scrap metal in the Shahkas area in Khyber Agency.
"Honey, have you seen my bomb?"
"It was all dented up and nasty. I threw it away. I ordered another one for you from Bombazon.com."
In Shalman, two people were injured when a car fell in a ravine,
At least 18 militants, including several commanders, surrendered to security forces in the Totanoo Bandai area of Kabal tehsil in Swat district on Wednesday, sources told Daily Times.
The militants also handed over their heavy weaponry to the authorities. Meanwhile, an Aman Committee delegation, led by its chairman Sher Khan, also met the security officials and told them about the problems being faced by the public due to the closure of chair lifts in the area. The officials assured the chair lifts would be started from today (Thursday).
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I still think a Babe Ruth graphic would be good for Swat stories
MOSUL, Iraq The battle for Mosul that will play out in the coming weeks and months could be a very different struggle than the successful U.S. campaigns against al-Qaeda militants in Baghdad and elsewhere. Baghdad and much of Iraq are slowly coming under the control of U.S. and Iraqi forces. This city of 1.8 million people remains an urban stronghold for al-Qaeda in Iraq.
SHIFT IN TACTICS: Al-Qaeda tries to salvage image
After a string of attacks here, including the assassination of the city's police chief and an ambush on a U.S. patrol that killed five soldiers, the United States and Iraqi government have turned their attention to Mosul. Last month, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki promised a decisive campaign to defeat al-Qaeda.
"The dynamics within Mosul really are different," says Lt. Col. Michael Simmering, whose 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment leads the charge here. "Transferring the Baghdad model up here doesn't work." That model flooded U.S. soldiers into Baghdad, identified neighborhood leaders and recruited local men to provide security. The strategy depended on widespread local opposition against al-Qaeda.
In Mosul, officers decided to forgo the neighborhood watch organizations that were vital elsewhere because they could stoke sectarian warfare. "Standing up (neighborhood groups) in one area automatically creates a perception that the balance of power shifts to that sect," Simmering says. "Then all of a sudden, what was an integrated city turns into a city where you have ethnic minorities taking sides."
In Mosul, U.S. troops face an enemy that has adapted from past mistakes. Al-Qaeda militants have pulled away from brutal tactics that alienated much of Iraq, such as car bombs that kill scores of civilians. That could make it harder for the U.S. military to turn people against the insurgency. "The people don't trust us yet," says Lt. Stanford Bell, 25, from Salt Lake City. "Right now, all that's out there are the terrorists."
U.S. troops will tackle al-Qaeda here with significantly less combat power than was used to help secure Baghdad in recent months. There will be roughly half the number of combat outposts manned by U.S. soldiers in Mosul's neighborhoods as there were in Baghdad, says Army Capt. Pat Ryan, a U.S. intelligence officer.
U.S. officers point out that the military had to pull apart warring Sunni and Shiite sects in Baghdad. In Mosul, sectarian tensions simmer but haven't exploded into open warfare. "In Baghdad, we were trying to break up a fistfight. Up here, I'm trying to find a bad guy," Simmering says.
In neighborhoods where U.S. troops establish a foothold, they will be hampered by the lack of a local leader and the absence of a strong tribal system that can help with the population, Ryan says. "You go into an area, and it's difficult to find the local leader who will step up and say, 'I'm the sheik of this neighborhood,' " he says.
As a result, the U.S. military will rely on the fledgling Iraqi security forces in Mosul more than they have anywhere else in Iraq, Simmering says. The Iraqi army and police units here receive measured praise from their U.S. counterparts, but there is some cause for concern. An Iraqi soldier in Mosul fatally shot a U.S. Army captain in December.
The Sunni-dominated police force is vastly underequipped, says Hassan Abdallah, a police captain in the city. He and his men have had to buy their own uniforms and lack any winter clothing. "We have no government support," he says.
U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq depend on local governments to make up for the weaknesses of the central government in Baghdad. That approach proved successful in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, west of Baghdad.
In Mosul, where the Sunni majority boycotted provincial elections in 2005, the government councils are 75% Kurdish, stoking discontent and mistrust. "The government in Baghdad does zero for us. The local government does even less," says Ahmed Abu Anis, 37, a Sunni construction worker in Mosul.
Despite the obstacles, U.S. soldiers are optimistic about the struggle ahead. "We were taking pretty sustained fire, but once you engage, they just disappear," Lt. Jacob Deguire said minutes after a gunfight against insurgents in downtown Mosul. "They're really good at disappearing once you return fire." He wiped his brow and chuckled: "Don't worry, one of these days, they're gonna disappear for good."
#4
Mosul was in much better shape when Deuce Four the Stryker battalion and LTC Kurilla were there as Michael Yon documented. But the unit pulled out going to Baghdad about 2 years ago..
#5
One block at a time. These counter insurgency efforts are difficult, localized events that hinge on trust. The kurds will not likely lend much trust to anyone other than their own, but if they have 75% of the population we should be able to pacify them fairly quickly. Word I've heard from the kurdish north says that the kurds have been trying to play both sides by offering safe haven and weapons for sale to AlQ in order to justify continued US presence so they can rest assured that they've got a well heeled army protecting their oil assets.
#6
Mosul is predominately Arab, mostly Sunni. The surrounding area is mostly Kurd, although with a Arab dominated corridor to the south. If Kurds are playing both sides, it will be free-lance. The Kurds long term strategy is to make Ninenveh province including Mosul part of the Kurdish area.
Polish soldiers patrolling in southern Iraq escaped injury from a roadside bomb Wednesday but four civilians were killed, the Voice of Iraq news agency said.
The blast happened near Diwaniyah, where Poland's 900 troops are stationed as part of the U.S.-led coalition. A woman and two children were among those killed and nine other people were injured, an Iraqi officer told the news agency.
Near the northern city of Tikrit, the U.S. military said a man, his wife and son were killed in their home Tuesday by U.S. troops, CNN reported. A statement said a child also sustained leg injuries in the incident which began when an "unknown enemy" opened fire on the troops. Soldiers stormed the building and opened fire, the report said. It was the second incident involving civilian deaths in four days. Saturday, nine Iraqi civilians were killed in a U.S. airstrike south of Baghdad.
The U.S. military also reported it had arrested an al-Qaida suspect Tuesday linked to a roadside bomb blast in the northern city of Mosul that killed five U.S. soldiers on Jan. 28, the network reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Hey! Thats King Whatzizbutwicz who defeated the Ottomans at Vienna.
Very appropriate. He's my hero, just goes to show you what the Poles can do when you piss em off.
I don't think they understand what lurks beneath the blonde hair and blue eyes of your average pole.....I bet they get their pound of flesh out of this one. I expect to see a news release about a bunch of these lions of Islam going toesup.
#3
This is the third? case where women and kids were mistakenly killed by coalition forces in the past week or so. Is it a pattern yet or still coincidence? Specifically, are AQI employing a new suicide 'strategy' where they purposely attack from positions with hidden human 'shields' so the predictable counterattack will cause casualties to offend American and European sensitivities?
#5
Glenmore, from what I'm gleaning yes, AQI are dashing into buildings or taking them over w/ civilian hostages and then launching attacks from there.
#6
That's not a new report on the civilians, but a repeat. MNF-I denies the story as reported. The other "attack" involved CLC's, not true civilians, and there is some indication that they were not entirely innocent.
Give me a chance at flying an F-15 or an F-16 and I don't think I'd be needing any Viagra...
JERUSALEM (AFP) - It might harm their reputation, but Israel's air force is considering giving its combat pilots Viagra to improve their performance -- in the air. Okay, ease back on the stick. Ummmmmm...no, not that one.
A recent study conducted by Israeli doctors among mountain climbers in Africa found a link between erectile dysfunction drugs and improved performance in high altitudes, the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot reported on Thursday. The active ingredient in the drugs was found to make climbers perform better in an environment with less oxygen, which causes fatigue and dizziness. ...and nervous mountain goats.
This has led army doctors to consider giving jet fighter pilots -- who can fly at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet (15,000 metres) -- the same drug, the report said. "The Viagra family of drugs is considered effective in these conditions because when there is a long shortage in oxygen it leads to high blood pressure in the lungs, and the drugs help fight that," the report quoted military medical sources as saying. ...so instead of thinking about the blood pressure thing, you'll be thinking about...something else.
#4
..."Avner, is that why they call it a joystick?"
"Shaddup, Moishe."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/07/2008 19:26 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Seriously, folks. That drug was originally developed as a treatment for cardiac hypertension. It didn't work for that, but it proved to be a lifesaver for people suffering from primary pulmonary hypertension, a condition that kills or requires a heart transplant within a year or two. If the Israelis say that improving blood flow to the lungs can help their pilots, I wouldn't disagree.
At least they have a different brand name for that drug for PPH suffers. No need to embarrass them.
I had to change this post so I wouldn't run afoul of the Rantburg spam filter.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/07/2008 20:39 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Personally I would prefer them pissed and in a killing mood. Keep up the 60-1 kill ratio vs arabs they have.
Well it appears that Egypt has discovered how much joy the Palis bring with them wherever they go...
Bethlehem - Ma'an The Egyptian Foreign Minister warned Palestinians against breaching the border with Egypt again, saying that "those who dare break the Egyptian border will find themselves with broken legs," the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Thursday. Stay over there behind the wall where we can look but not touch. We like it that way.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, added that there are some ongoing negotiations between Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the European Union to legally re-open the Rafah border crossing. Aboul Gheit also strongly criticized Hamas for firing homemade rockets into Israel calling those rockets as "cartoonish." He said, "These rockets that get lost in the Israeli sands give Israel the excuses it needs to launch attacks against Gaza." ...which he did not describe as "cartoonish".
After Palestinians broke through the border wall on January 23rd, Egyptian security forces initially stood by while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured into Egypt to shop for basic supplies made scare by Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip. Egypt has since resealed the border, and has also said that it will allow the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, to operate the Rafah crossing. Oh, good, the "good" terrorists. That'll make it much more secure...
#2
Or, they could just sell them more motorcycles...
Gaza-Ma'an A motorcyclist arrived dead at the hospital after he lost control of his bike and crashed into the side of a shop in the Tel As-sultan neighborhood of Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip. A source at Abu Yousuf Hospital said that in addition to 30-year-old Hatem Muhammad Jouda, who was killed, two other men were injured in the accident. They were unconscious when they arrived at the hospital.
Hundreds of motorcycles were reportedly brought in from Egypt by Palestinian teenagers after the border breached in January. Most of the motorcycles are still unregistered and the drivers untrained and unlicensed. Muawiya Hassanein, the head of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian Health Ministry, said that hospitals in Gaza have treated 20 people injured in motorcycle accidents so far.
#3
Nah, forget it. Just break their legs. Helluva thing, taking advantage of their Muslim "brothers"...
Bethlehem Ma'an Egyptian authorities have seized more than a million dollars in forged US currency allegedly produced in the Gaza Strip since the Gaza-Egypt border was toppled by Palestinian fighters two weeks ago, Egyptian sources told Ma'an on Thursday.
The sources expect more counterfeit banknotes to be discovered, as hundreds of dollars are being found every day. Egyptian merchants in towns bordering Gaza, such as Al-Arish, Rafah and Sheikh Zwaid have helped investigators by saving counterfeit bills.
Most of the forged bills are not being reused, as merchants have been warned by the Egyptian government to double-check currency before accepting it.
The Egyptian security services refused to lay blame for the flood of forged money until investigations have completed. However, Egyptian reiterated on Thursday that the border with the Gaza Strip will not again be violated again.
Israeli raids on Gaza killed six Palestinian fighters and a teacher on Thursday as the army pressed on with an assault on the Hamas-run territory following a suicide bombing in Israel this week.
Escalating violence in and around Gaza has now seen 19 Palestinians, mostly militants, killed in Israeli strikes and several Israelis, including two young children, wounded by militant rocket attacks during the past week.
In one air strike on Thursday, four militants -- three from the armed wing of Hamas and a fourth from Islamic Jihad -- were killed near Jabaliya in the north of the territory by a missile fired from a drone.
A second air raid saw two militants killed near Tuffah north of Gaza City, while four others were wounded, two of them seriously, medics said.
Hamas said Israeli ground forces were also operating in the area, while an Israeli military spokesman said only that "an army operation is underway."
The teacher was killed when an Israeli tank shell slammed into a high school in the northern town of Beit Hanun, wounding three students, medics said.
Hamas militants launched at least 14 rockets and mortars at Israel, with one lightly wounding two civilians.
On Wednesday, two children aged two and four were wounded after a rocket hit their home in southern Israel, medics said.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday vowed to press on with the Gaza strikes as long as rocket fire continues.
"If the rocket fire from Gaza continues, we will intensify our operations and strikes against the other side, until a solution is found," Barak told reporters during a visit in the south of the country.
Since Israelis and Palestinians renewed peace talks in late November after a seven-year freeze, at least 168 people have been killed in violence between the two sides, most of them militants in Gaza, according to an AFP tally.
Israel went on the offensive on Tuesday as Hamas, the Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza since violently seizing power there in June 2007 -- claimed responsibility for the first suicide bombing inside the Jewish state in a year.
It was the first time Hamas had claimed an attack since August 2004.
Twelve Gaza militants have been killed since Monday, all but one Hamas, and the group has vowed revenge, retaliating with rocket and mortar fire.
Israel has been on alert since Monday's bombing -- the first suicide attack in the Jewish state since January last year -- in the southern desert town of Dimona that killed one woman and wounded nearly a dozen other people.
The attack came after a nearly two-week breach of the Gaza-Egypt border, which raised fears in Israel that Gaza militants could have entered the Jewish state. It was resealed by Egyptian and Hamas forces on Sunday.
Israel has increasingly tightened restrictions on Gaza since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000, notably in June 2006 after militants seized a soldier and a year later when Hamas took control.
In October, Israel began reducing fuel supplies to Gaza, sparking an outcry by rights groups which warned of dire consequences for hospitals and other basic infrastructure on which Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants rely.
Aids groups say Israel is expected to further reduce the amount of electricity it supplies to Gaza, over the next two weeks shaving 1.5 megawatts off the 120 megawatts it currently provides.
New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Israel of "collective punishment" over the supply cuts in its campaign to halt the near-daily rocket attacks launched by Palestinian militants at southern Israel.
"Israel views restricting fuel and electricity to Gaza as a way to pressure Palestinian armed groups to stop their rocket and suicide attacks," HRW's Middle East director Joe Stork said in a statement.
"But the cuts are seriously affecting civilians who have nothing to do with these armed groups, and that violates a fundamental principle of the laws of war."
#2
"Israel views restricting fuel and electricity to Gaza as a way to pressure Palestinian armed groups to stop their rocket and suicide attacks," HRW's Middle East director Joe Stork said in a statement. "But the cuts are seriously affecting civilians who have nothing to do with these armed groups, and that violates a fundamental principle of the laws of war."
So I would take this to mean that HRW has absolutely no problem with the IDF blasting the shit out of Hamas as long as they keep the lights on, right?
Or would I be terrribly, terribly wrong?
Hamas militants fired a rocket into an Israeli border village, wounding two young sisters as they played outside their home. The attack followed Israel air strikes against Gaza militants and threats of an "all-front" war on the Islamic group.
The rapid-fire events threatened to escalate into large scale combat that could bury U.S.-led Mideast peace efforts.
For which Israel will be blamed, of course ...
Hamas stepped up its rocket barrages at southern Israel for a second day, retaliating for an Israeli strike that killed seven of its police officers. More than a dozen rockets rained down, one exploding at Kibbutz Beeri, a communal village about four miles from the border fence. Two sisters, ages 12 and 2, were lightly wounded as they played in their yard, police said. Their mother was taken to a hospital for shock.
Israel unleashed an intensified air campaign after Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing Monday that killed one woman in southern Israel. It was the first such Hamas attack in Israel in more than three years. Early Wednesday, Israeli aircraft fired at militants who launched rockets moments earlier, the military said. Hamas said that four of its men were wounded. After nightfall Wednesday, Israeli aircraft hit a metal workshop in Gaza city, Hamas said. No one was hurt. The military had no immediate comment.
The upsurge in fighting threatened to overwhelm peacemaking efforts in an avalanche of rocket attacks, reprisals and bombings.
A poll released Wednesday showed Hamas jumping in popularity for breaking down a border wall with Egypt on Jan. 23, allowing Gaza's quarantined people a 12-day taste of freedom before Egypt closed the breaches Sunday.
Israel on Wednesday approved construction of a fence along the 150-mile desert border with Egypt, fearing that Palestinian militants who crossed from Gaza into Egypt could infiltrate into Israel. Despite Wednesday's decision, no funds were budgeted, and it was not clear when construction would start.
The issue of the border has arisen several times since the border was established in 1982. Most recently, Israel pledged to build a border fence in early 2007, after a suicide bomber infiltrated from Egypt and killed three Israelis in the southern port of Eilat. It considered the issue again after an upsurge in smuggling and an influx of African refugees.
At first, Israel assumed the bomber who hit the southern town of Dimona on Monday came in from Egypt, but Hamas identified the bombers as militants from the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri defended the suicide bombing. "There is no choice, no option for our people, but to resist the occupation and defend themselves by all possible means," he told The Associated Press.
With the suicide bombing and its renewed involvement in rocket attacks, Hamas was showing it could be an effective spoiler in peace efforts.
They needed to show that again?
Hamas does not recognize Israel and has sent dozens of suicide bombers to attack inside the country. The Islamic militants, who rule Gaza after expelling forces loyal to ineffectual moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last June, are not a party to peace talks renewed at a U.S.-sponsored conference in November.
Israel insists that Abbas must retake control of Gaza and neutralize militants before any peace accords are implemented. For the meantime, the balance of power is tilting toward Hamas.
While Hamas gains clout among Palestinians by breaking Israel's stranglehold on Gaza, even temporarily, Abbas' administration is coping with a strike by civil servants protesting a new regulation aimed at forcing West Bank residents to pay millions of dollars in back utility bills. The strike showed that despite the renewal of foreign aid to Abbas' regime, Palestinians under his control are still in serious economic trouble.
So are Palestinians in Gaza, but many are united in blaming Israel for their troubles. Israel, for its part, planned to keep up its economic pressure on Gaza. Last week Israel's Supreme Court cleared the way for reduction in electricity supplies starting Thursday.
Israel indicated that it would not let up in its attacks. "We need to understand there is a war in the south," Vice Premier Haim Ramon told Israel Radio. "The war against Hamas has to be fought on all fronts."
In Gaza, the Hamas-dominated legislature canceled Wednesday's session, fearing an Israeli attack. The Israeli military refused to comment.
It was unlikely that Abbas could press ahead with serious peace talks during a high-profile conflict between Israel and Hamas. Abbas has been forced to periodically condemn Israeli attacks in the name of Palestinian solidarity.
On Wednesday, Abbas condemned the rocket fire but urged Israel to let supplies in. "These rockets that are being fired at Israel must stop. It's pointless," he said at a news conference with Austria's foreign minister. "At the same time, Israel should not use these rockets as a pretext for collective punishment on Palestinians in Gaza."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Israel should not use these rockets as a pretext for collective punishment on Palestinians in Gaza.
Don't think of it as 'collective punishment', Abbas. Think of it as practice for Paleo statehood. In the world of nation-states, if you fire rockets at your neighbors, they'll get pissed. Piss them off bad enough, and they will come over and kick your rocket-firing ass. Just like now, see? We call that 'war'. Best not to start one you don't plan on winning.
#3
I could never understand why they don't just shoot some rockets back in tit for tat fashion. It would be difficult to complain about it without condemning both sides.
Posted by: jim ||
02/07/2008 12:07 Comments ||
Top||
A defence volunteer was shot and killed inside an ice factory in this southern border province early Thursday. Police said Muhamadmisi Abudi, 21, was shot and killed at 1 am while he was sleeping inside the factory in Tambon Anyer of Betong district.
The Air Force on Tuesday claimed to have destroyed identified Tiger targets in the north in a series of raids amid reports of intensified fighting along the Forward Defence Lines (FDLs). The Defence Ministry said jets raided one of the main strategic command and control centres of the LTTE located Northwest of Puthukudiruppu.
However, the pro-LTTE TamilNet said two civilians were killed and two wounded when the jets bombed a suburb of Kilinochchi town, firing air burst bombs over the U.N. compound area with civilian settlements, 100 metres from UNICEF office near Kandasamy temple.
Separately, the Navy said two of its coastal patrol craft were fired upon by a boat that came along with a cluster of Indian Fishing vessels in the Gulf of Mannar on Monday. It said one of the boats pretended to be in distress and requested assistance. When approached, the boats opened fire at the Navy vessel.
A Navy spokesman said the LTTE may have hijacked the Indian vessel or its cadre were disguised as fishermen. He claimed that 200 to 300 Indian fishing trawlers enter Sri Lankan waters a week despite the presence of the powerful Indian Navy and the Coast Guard on the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) between the two countries.
In another development, the military claimed that at least 12 LTTE cadre were killed in clashes erupted near the LTTE defences in Wanni.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2008 00:00 ||
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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.
How the classified military documents from Iraq, which named the coordinates of where the Army suspected weapons of mass destruction to be hidden, ended up in an Arabic translators apartment on Hoyt Street in Brooklyn, is clear.
PESHAWAR: Following unconfirmed reports of killing of a high-profile al-Qaeda commander 
According to sources, the American al-Qaeda militant, who has been reportedly spending much of his time in Afghanistan and Pakistani tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, had reached Mir Ali for an important meeting with other senior al-Qaeda commanders for planning the so-called spring offensive against US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.
X 72 
Eight soldiers including Kohat General Officer Commanding (GOC) Major General Javed Sultan were killed when an army helicopter crashed in South Waziristan on Wednesday. 
Suspected militants have sent a letter to local English daily the Frontier Times, warning it to report events correctly and mend its ways within five days, sources said on Wednesday. 
Police are looking for at least four suspected key terrorists, including a deputy of killed Taliban commander 
At least 18 militants, including several commanders, surrendered to security forces in the Totanoo Bandai area of Kabal tehsil in Swat district on Wednesday, sources told Daily Times. 
Polish soldiers patrolling in southern Iraq escaped injury from a roadside bomb Wednesday but four civilians were killed, the Voice of Iraq news agency said.
Israel unleashed an intensified air campaign after Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing Monday that killed one woman in southern Israel. It was the first such Hamas attack in Israel in more than three years. Early Wednesday, Israeli aircraft fired at militants who launched rockets moments earlier, the military said. Hamas said that four of its men were wounded. After nightfall Wednesday, Israeli aircraft hit a metal workshop in Gaza city, Hamas said. No one was hurt. The military had no immediate comment.
