Afghan forces killed and wounded a number of Taliban militants after fighting off an ambush in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan Defence Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Taliban insurgents have vowed to intensify attacks on Afghan and foreign troops countrywide, launch a wave of suicide bombings and attack supply lines from Pakistan this year in their campaign to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government.
Taliban fighters ambushed an Afghan army patrol in the Mizan district of Zabul province on Monday, the Defence Ministry said.
"The operation is still going on and we are assessing information about the precise figure of enemy casualties," said Defence Ministry spokesman Zahir Murad.
Also in Zabul province, the Taliban killed an Afghan civilian accused of spying for NATO troops, a spokesman for the hardline Islamist movement said.
Elsewhere, four Afghan policemen and two civilians were killed when the Taliban ambushed their vehicle in the Ghoryan district of Herat province close to western border with Iran on Monday, a senior police official said.
Some 6,000 people, around a third of them civilians, were killed in fighting in Afghanistan last year.
Gunmen shot dead seven Afghan staff of UN-funded mine clearing teams in northern Afghanistan, their organisations said Monday, in some of the deadliest attacks on non-government workers in months.
In one incident, unknown attackers halted a convoy of deminers returning from work in the province of Jawzjan on Sunday and opened fire, killing five and wounding seven, Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC) said.
The gunmen shot into the first vehicle and then opened fire on the others, which included an ambulance, as they turned around and sped off, director Kefayatullah Eblagh told AFP. "Three people stopped the vehicle and started shooting at them without saying anything," he said.
Some of the men were able to use demining equipment to shield themselves from the barrage of bullets, Eblagh said.
It was the worst attack on the company in its 18 years of operations in Afghanistan, he said. "It was terrible."
Two more employees of a separate mine clearing team, the Mine Detection and Dog Centre (MDC), were shot dead in the northern province of Kunduz on Monday, their organisation and the United Nations said.
The men -- a deminer and a driver -- were gunned down after returning from a ceremony to hand over land they had cleared of mines to a community, MDC's deputy director, named only Enyatullah, told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
This kind of attack must really win the hearts and minds of the population. Afghanistan must have about the highest proportion of one-legged kids in the world already.
Muslim militants briefly overran a police station Monday after violent clashes with police that killed five people, a day after the prime minister began new peace efforts, witnesses said.
The insurgent attack was the latest brazen move by fighters linked to an Islamic extremist group that was driven out in December 2006 by Somalia's Western-backed government and its Ethiopian allies.
Leyla Adow, a Mogadishu resident who said she witnessed the violence, said the police station was briefly overrun. "Insurgents were firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades," she said.
Another witness, Nuradin Haji Madar, said the victims appeared to be three officers, one insurgent and a civilian. "I saw the bodies," she said.
In recent weeks, the insurgents have taken over government positions, marched into towns and even released prisoners from jail before retreating.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein met with elders of the highly influential Hawiye clan in a new bid to push reconciliation. Government and clan officials said the meeting was preliminary and would continue this week.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
Unfortunate, but in a post-USS Cole world this is what happens.
ONE Egyptian was killed and two wounded when a US military ship about to cross the Suez Canal opened fire on barges of hawkers that approached their boat today, a security source said.
The ship, Global Patriot, was preparing to travel from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean when a group of Egyptians seeking to sell merchandise approached the boat on small barges, the source said.
Americans on board told the barges to stop and opened fire when they continued to approach.
Posted by: Glenmore ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
The Same kind of thing happens on Land at check points in Iraq.
And the Iraqi Locals are to blame themselves, for after 6 years of Car Borne IEDs only the slowest-witted retards would just drive up uncleared to a check point without being waved in.
OR Ident by Radio then ordered to proceed by the personal guarding the post.
Same thing on the Sea,
I would wait to be handed in person, a 5-pound freshly minted Gold-Invitation-Coin, wrapped in Red Ribbon before I would approach any US ship. :)
#2
From the BBC:
"According to the US Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC), the Global Patriot is a US-flagged roll-on, roll-off container ship chartered from Global Container Lines.
In the past, it has been used by the MSC to transport a US military Patriot Missile defence battery, ammunition, and MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles around the world"
Apparently it's a stretch to call it a warship. Sounds more like an armed merchantman in a very bad neighborhood. Still the level of ignorance in the Middle East (on the part of these small boat men, in this case, or at land checkpoints in Iraq) continues to astound me.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/25/2008 8:32 Comments ||
Top||
#5
About time. None of the lepers should get within a half mile of any of our vessels. They were probably very close due to their proximity to the Canal. Great shooting guys. Keep it up.
#6
I almost can't believe the Gyptians allow hawkers to approach ships. A bomb at the water line will sink a commercial ship and close the Suez for a year.
Posted by: ed ||
03/25/2008 9:25 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Every time I imagine taking a vacation in Egypt this sort of thing reminds me it would be a very bad idea. Consider a tourist cruise up the Nile, hawkers like this a commonplace and one boat with a bomb. It is not like it is a stretch of the imagination.
#8
The Yahoo story said that when the ship fired, AFTER giving warnings on a loudspeaker and firing a flare, the ship only shot 20-30 yards in front of the barge then it fled. According to the navy,all rounds were accounted for.
Either this is muzzie lies propaganda, or the AQ handlers got pissed at the barge driver's cowardness in meeting his virgins.
#9
The Egyptians shouldn't feel special. If you approach too closely to the exclusion line around any of the carriers moored in San Diego Bay, a little boat with a BIG 50 caliber machine gun comes very quickly to counsel you on the wisdom of leaving the area.
#13
#12 All rounds were accounted for? Did they send divers to pick them off the ocean floor?
Probably videotaped the whole thing, just to make sure they weren't blamed for some dastardly deed. That SHOULD be standard procedure when transiting any hazardous area (the entire Muddled East).
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/25/2008 12:02 Comments ||
Top||
#14
None of the rounds hit the barge and nobody was hurt let alone killed. As usual the MSM has it 180 out from reality.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
03/25/2008 13:14 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Bum boats have been a tradition for a long, long time.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/25/2008 21:56 Comments ||
Top||
#16
MSC vessels use embarked Navy security detachments. Likely the incident was videotaped.
#17
FREEREPUBLIC > AP/REUTERS - USN at this time will only affirm that a shooting incident took place, but will not affirm or deny were any casualties. USN investigation is still on-going although EGYPT insists there were casualties.
Al-Qaeda's North Africa branch, which is holding two Austrian hostages, has extended until April 6 a deadline for Austria, Tunisia and Algeria to save the hostages' lives, a monitoring group said on Monday. "It is an additional extension of two weeks that will expire on Sunday April 6, 2008 at midnight," Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said in a message posted on Islamist militant websites, the US-based SITE Intelligence Group said.
Al-Qaeda said that at the time its "final" extension expires, "we will have exhausted what we could bear. Let Austria, Tunisia and Algeria be responsible for the lives of the kidnapped."
The Al-Qaeda wing, which is holding Andrea Kloiber and Wolfgang Ebner after abducting them in north Africa, repeated its demand for the release of "some of our hostages."
It had originally demanded the release of a number of Islamists imprisoned in Algeria and Tunisia in exchange for the Austrians' freedom. Although the ultimatum was addressed to Austria, the message dated Monday also held Tunisia and Algeria "responsible for the lives of the kidnapped."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
Danish state prosecutors on Tuesday formally charged two men with plotting a bomb attack, saying they had manufactured and tested explosives.
The men, aged 21 and 22, were arrested with six others in September on suspicion of preparing an attack and having links with al Qaeda and had been in custody since their arrest.
One of the eight was charged separately on Tuesday with inciting others to kidnap Danish citizens abroad to force Denmark to release the two suspects in the bomb plot.
The five other men have not been formally charged and are not in custody but are under investigation, authorities said.
The Danish Security and Intelligence service described the men as militant Islamists with international connections. They ranged in age from 19 to 29, and came from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Turkey. Six of them are Danish citizens.
Security experts have said Denmark is a target for militants because of its military involvement in Afghanistan and a crisis sparked in 2006 after cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad were published in a Danish newspaper.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden this week said Europe would be punished for the cartoons, first published by the daily Jyllands-Posten in September 2005.
Last month, Danish and foreign newspapers reprinted one of the cartoons in solidarity with one of the cartoonists after three men were arrested for allegedly planning to kill him. The reprints triggered more Muslim anger.
Under new anti-terror laws introduced in Denmark after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States the justice minister decides whether to prosecute suspects after recommendations from the state prosecutors.
In a statement, the State Prosecutor's Office said Justice Minister Lene Espersen had concurred with its view and said the men had "prepared the making of one or more bombs for use in a terror attack in an unknown location".
In a barbaric act, militants killed a village headman by slitting his throat in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said today. Forty-year-old Abdul Majid Piswal was brutally killed by militants who dragged him out from his house at Shrat-Kuligam village last night, a police spokesman said. He said his body was found in the nearby forest and later handed over to his next of kin. Police have registered a case and have launched a hunt to nab the militants behind the shocking incident, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, police apprehended an overground worker of Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit, Mohammad Ishaq Mir from Pulwama this morning. Hailing from Urcharsoo village of Pulwama, Mir was nabbed at a police checkpost, the spokesman said, adding a hand grenade was recovered from his possession.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Jaish-e-Mohammad
Somali rebels waging war on the country's Ethiopian-backed transitional government attacked a police station in the capital Mogadishu, igniting a bloody battle that killed at least two police officers and one of the attackers, witnesses said.
The fighting sparked Monday morning after a police unit aboard two armored trucks arrived at the Hodan police station, which the police force abandoned a month ago.
Insurgents used machineguns, hand grenades and rocket launchers during the attack.
The police unit was forced to vacate the Hodan police station and wait for Somali army reinforcements, witnesses said.
Ethiopian troops stationed at the former Digfer Hospital drove their armed trucks towards the scene of the fighting, but the soldiers were not directly involved in the battle and did not meet any resistance.
Eyewitnesses said the dead bodies of the two police officers could be seen lying on the ground near the entrance to the Hodan police station for two hours.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
(KUNA) -- As many as five insurgents of three rebel outfits have surrendered in Indias Northeastern state of Tripura, bordering Bangladesh. A top insurgent of outlawed All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) Tapan Debbarma surrendered in West Tripura district last night and deposited one Chinesemade pistol and a grenade, news agency Press Trust of India reported Monday, quoting a state police official. In a separate incident, two insurgents of banned National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) surrendered in the Kanchanpur sub-division of North Tripura district last night, the official said.
Two insurgents of Borok National Council of Tripura group, surrendered to police in the North Tripura district also last night, the official added. ATTF and NLFT are two key rebel groups of Tripura. However, over the past five years, insurgency has been on wane in the state, following sustained counter-insurgency operations and massive surrenders. Leadership of both ATTF and NLFT are based in Bangladesh and operate from there. India has sought their extradition from Dhaka.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Police said on Sunday they have arrested and deported 219 illegal Afghani immigrants from Balochistan. Officer Muhammad Yaqoob said the Afghans were arrested over the past 20 days. They were handed over to Afghan officials on Sunday at the Chaman border crossing. Balochistan shares a lengthy border with southern Afghanistan and illegal travel along the frontier is common. The Afghan government says it suspects that remnants of the Taliban militia are also in Balochistan, but Pakistan has denied the claim.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Nine Swat teenagers are feared to have been kidnapped by suspected militants to be trained as suicide bombers.
Of the nine, four teenagers from the Taran, Gharo, and Aligram areas have gone missing from the hostel of the Excellence Academy of Education, Kabal. The Kabal police have registered an FIR. Three of the missing boys were from Aligram and one each were from Taran and Kalu Dagai. Sher Hassan, the father of Obaidullah, a missing boy, told Daily Times that his son had been missing since March 13 when he left for Hadassah Jama Darul Uloom Sharifabad, Swat. He is not attending his cell-phone, Sher Hassan added.
Police officials say they fear that militants have kidnapped the boys to use them for subversive activities. Meanwhile, Anjumaan Nijaat, a Lahore resident, has brought three youths who went missing in the metropolis back to Swat.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: TNSM
#1
Is this for real? Or is it cover for something?
By Aref Mohammed in Basra
THE death toll from clashes between Iraqi security forces and the Mehdi Army militia in Basra has risen to 12, and violence appears to be spreading to Baghdad and other cities.
Police and health workers said at least 12 people were killed in the fighting in districts of central and northern Basra where Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army has a strong presence.
"There are clashes in the streets. Bullets are coming from everywhere and we can hear the sound of rocket explosions. This has been going on since dawn," resident Jamil said.
Columns of black smoke rose above the city and explosions and machinegun fire could be heard. Reuters Television pictures showed masked gunmen firing mortars in the street, while others drove around in captured Iraqi army and police vehicles.
The Mehdi Army, which has thousands of fighters, has kept a relatively low profile since last August when Sadr called a ceasefire, one of the main factors behind the sharp reduction in sectarian violence in Iraq in recent months.
But the militia has chafed at the truce, saying US and Iraqi forces exploited it to carry out indiscriminate arrests.
In a statement read out by a senior aide on Tuesday, Sadr called on Iraqis to stage sit-ins all over Iraq and said he would declare a "civil revolt" if attacks by US and Iraqi security forces continued.
He also threatened a "third step", but said it was to early to announce what it would be.
Sadr's followers launched what they called "a civil disobedience campaign" in Baghdad on Monday, forcing store-owners to close in several districts.
Pro-Sadr students forced Mustansiriya University in Baghdad to close on Tuesday. Members of Sadr's movement said the protest would spread to other towns and cities from Wednesday.
Police sources said Sadr supporters seized control of five districts in the southern town of Kut on Tuesday after clashes between gunmen and police.
In Baghdad, US and Iraqi forces sealed off the Mehdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, a sprawling slum of 2 million people, after the militia ordered police and soldiers off the streets.
Police said fighting erupted in several Sadr City neighbourhoods between Mehdi Army fighters and the Badr Organisation, the armed wing of a rival Shiite faction.
Baghdad's Green Zone, the government and diplomatic compound, was hit by several salvoes of rockets during the day. US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover said they had been fired from Sadr City.
Police imposed curfews in the southern towns of Kut, Hilla and Samawa, capital of Muthanna province.
In Basra two ambulance drivers said they had transported eight bodies to Basra's Sadr Education hospital. A police major at al-Mawana hospital said four bodies were received.
"This operation will not come to an end in Basra without the law prevailing and being respected," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
But analysts said the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who was in Basra to oversee the operation, would struggle to overcome militias who were looking to keep hold of their share of Basra's oil wealth.
Sadrists and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), the two most powerful Shiite factions in Iraq, have been vying for control of Basra along with a smaller Shiite party, Fadhila, which controls key oil industry jobs in Basra.
Peter Harling, a Damascus-based analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank, said Sadr's followers were angry because they believed the US had chosen to support SIIC's Badr Organisation.
"The fact that Sadr called upon his followers to implement a civil disobedience campaign reflects the pressure building upon him. There is huge frustration among the group's rank and file."
Basra's oilfields hold 80 per cent of Iraq's oil wealth. Iraqi oil industry sources said the fields, which exported 1.54 million barrels of oil per day in February, were operating normally on Tuesday.
The British military said no British ground forces were involved in the operation, but warplanes from the US-led coalition were carrying out aerial surveillance.
Iraqi security forces took control of Basra from British forces in December.
#1
looks like US and Iraqi forces were steadily attriting Sadr with arrests of not-really-rogue militants, and Sadr was cooling to the govt, when Maliki (presumably in consultation with Petraeus (and Cheney?) decided on a preemptive strike on Basra, the city least under the iraqi govts control. With iraqi army forces commited in basra, Sadr is striking back in Baghdad, where US forces are coming into play.
points/questions
1. Looks like IA is taking the lead in Basra, a big technical test for the IA
2. If the IA keeps up the attack on Sadr in Basra, this is huge politically - showing Iraqi forces are fighting for the state against a shiite militia
3. Will this reconcile Maliki, now independent of Sadr, with SCII, and others who mistrusted Maliki
4. Will the friendly Sunni forces, so far working with the US but not with the Iraqi govt, gain new confidence that the Iraqi govt will also crack down on Shiites, and so be more supportive
5.what will the iranian response be?
6. What will the effect in the US be - pundits have mentioned many times that the improvements of the surge are dependent on Sadrs cooperation - if Sadr is defanged by force, this should sway a few of them towards the surge. OTOH the ordinary press and the public look more just to casualty counts and bleeding headlines, so it may look worse to them
7. If Sadr is true to form, he wont fight to the death. When its clear hes losing, he will try for another hudna. What might he offer that would make Maliki (if not Petraues) want to call off the dogs.
8. Are there enough troops - US plus reliable Iraqis - to take on Sadr while AQ is still alive in Mosul and Baquba
#4
Beeb says 3 IA brigades involved, total of 15,000 men with tanks and artillery, the city is sealed off. Operation "knights charge" or something (trans from the Arabic)
#7
I suspect this is the culmination of the surge and probably long ago anticipated by Petraeus. That is probably those that are "risk averse" in the Pentagon (and State and other places) are over in the corner, biting their lip.
#8
In a statement read out by a senior aide on Tuesday, Sadr called on Iraqis to stage sit-ins all over Iraq and said he would declare a "civil revolt" if attacks by US and Iraqi security forces continued.
I guess Sadr himself couldn't very well have read the statement from his hideout in Tehran.
#9
Taking out Sadr and Madhi is the next step. Though I would have expected the US and Iraqi gov to wait until Mosul is finished. Sadr may have sped up things with the Green Zone rocket attacks.
Posted by: ed ||
03/25/2008 19:26 Comments ||
Top||
Matthew Weaver and agencies
The radical Shia cleric Moqtada "Tooth fairy" al-Sadr today called for "civil revolt" after a crackdown on Shia factions in Basra killed 22 people.
Iraqi security forces in the southern Iraqi city encountered heavy resistance as battles with gunmen from Sadr's Mahdi Army militia broke out.
Officials in Basra said many of those killed were civilians. A further 58 were wounded.
"We call upon all Iraqis to stage sit-ins all over Iraq as a first step," Sadr said in a statement. "And if the people's demands are not respected by the Iraqi government, the second step will be to declare civil revolt in Baghdad and all other provinces."
The cleric also threatened a "third step" but did not give details. The statement suggested he could be considering ending a Mahdi Army ceasefire that began in August.
Sadr's followers appear to have responded in Baghdad. Shia gunmen were visible in several neighbourhoods and the US protected Green Zone came under mortar or rocket attack.
Police told Rooters that Mahdi Army fighters loyal to Sadr were battling gunmen from the Badr Organisation, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
Major-General Ali Zaidan, the commander of Iraqi ground forces in the Basra operation, said its aim was to "wipe out all the outlaws". He told Reuters: "There were clashes and many outlaws have been killed."
Television footage showed smoke from explosions rising over the city and Iraqi soldiers exchanging shots with militia fighters.
"There are clashes in the streets," a Basra resident told Reuters. "Bullets are coming from everywhere, and we can hear the sound of rocket explosions. This has been going on since dawn."
The British military said it was not involved. British forces withdrew to a base at Basra airport last year after returning control of the city to the Iraqi authorities.
The clashes broke out after the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, travelled to the area and announced a crackdown to end clashes between the three Shia factions fighting for power - the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the Mahdi Army and the small Fadhila party.
Earlier, the Mahdi Army warned that tensions in Basra would escalate if its members were targeted by the authorities. "We are calling for calm, but this new security plan has the wrong timing," said Harith al-Edhari, the director of Sadr's office in Basra.
The cleric's followers have accused the Shia-dominated government of exploiting a ceasefire to target his supporters prior to provincial elections expected this autumn.
They have demanded the release of supporters rounded up in recent weeks after the cleric told his followers they were free to defend themselves against attacks.
The US has insisted it is not going after Sadr followers but targeting renegade elements that Washington believes have ties to Iran.
Iraqi authorities have put Basra under an indefinite night curfew, starting last night.
The US military today said five suspected militants had been killed while trying to plant a roadside bomb in the city. Ten others were injured after being seen engaging in "suspicious activity", a statement said.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
03/25/2008 12:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
The US has insisted it is not going after Sadr followers but targeting renegade elements that Washington believes have ties to Iran.
A distinction without difference, but we must keep up appearances for PR sake. Is brave Tater still leading his Tots from the safety of Iran?
MICHAEL YON EMAILS: "It's important to contextualize the fighting in Basra. That the Iraqi Army apparently is fighting JAM is important; a largely Shia Government of Iraq is in command of the Iraqi Army. The Iraqi Army is fighting Shia militia. This is not bad news."
Posted by: Mike ||
03/25/2008 15:01 Comments ||
Top||
#11
The Islamists need NUCTECHS + "ISLAMIST" BOMB now, read - IRAN, espec in the absence of any signif battlefield = tactical victory over the US in Iraq-Afghani. THEY'RE GAMBLING ON MSM REPORTS THAT DUBYA WILL NOT UNDERTAKE ANY SERIOUS MIL ACTION AGZ NUCLEARIZING IRAN IN HIS FINAL YEAR, OR IN THE ALTERN AT LEAST THRU SUMMER-MID-FALL 2008; + ME mil redux plans as per OBAMA-HILLARY.
IICC/IIRC, IRAQ for the time being is more A HOLDING FRONT/SECTOR AGZ US WHILE RADICAL ISLAM HELPS IRAN CARVE OUT AN EMPIRE-BLOC AGZ RUSSIA-+ SCO/CSTO IN CENTRAL ASIA. Russ is easier becuz, despite high-profile successes in CHECHYA, RUSS REMAINS HEAVILY OR PROHIBITIVELY HARD-PRESSED, vv MEN $$$ + MATERIEL, TO SUCCESSFULLY CHALLENGE EACH AND EVERY LOCAL ISLAMIST OPERATION. Osama + Radical Islam are taking advantage while Russ is still gener weak.
RUSS FOCII IS ON ANTI-US NATIONAL ECON + MIL FORCE-TECH MODERNIZATION, NOT LOCAL ISLAMISM > 2010-2015 IRAN [Radical Terror?]WILL HAVE "THE BOMB(S)" ALREADY AS PER ISRAELI INTEL, to include BIOWAR + CHEMWAR.
* IMO, THIS IS A DE FACTO ESCALATION - HOW WILL DUBYA MILPOL REACT TO IT???
BASRA, Iraq (AFP) Fierce fighting erupted Tuesday between Iraq's security forces and the Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in southern Basra city, an AFP reporter at the scene said. The fighting involved mortars and gunfire and erupted soon after the security forces entered the Al-Tamiyah neighbourhood, the bastion of the Mahdi Army, at 5:00 a.m. (0200 GMT), the reporter said.
Clashes later spread to five other neighbourhoods, including Al-Jumhuriyah, Five Miles and Al-Hayania, the Mahdi Army's main stronghold in Basra, 550 kilometres (350 miles) south of Baghdad. Police confirmed an operation was underway against the Mahdi Army in Basra while the Sadr movement said it was ready to negotiate a ceasefire.
"We began operations at 5:00 a.m. There is fighting between security forces and the Mahdi Army," said police spokesman Major Karim al-Zubaidi.
A British military spokesman said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is personally overseeing the operation launched early Tuesday. "The prime minister came down to Basra from Baghdad yesterday along with a delegation. He is overseeing the operation. He is at an Iraqi military base," Major Tom Holloway told AFP. "We are awaiting details of the operation as we speak."
Another military official said British troops were not participating in the crackdown. "It is an entire Iraqi operation," she said.
Officials at the main hospital in Basra said a number of wounded people had been brought in but there were no immediate reports of anyone killed.
A spokesman for Sadr's office in Basra, Harith al-Athari, told AFP the Sadrists wanted to end the stand-off. "The situation is bad and we regret the fighting. We are ready for negotiations and want to calm things," he said.
Liwa Sumaysim, head of Sadr's political bureau in the central city of Najaf, denounced the bloodletting. "We do not want the situation as it is in Basra. We are against bloodshed, especially in this critical period of time," Sumaysim told AFP. "The Sadr movement is being targeted in Basra, that is why this tension has been created. The Iraqi government forces should not use force against poor people," he added.
"The Sadr movement has called for an urgent meeting of their leaders to consider all the available choices and we will announce the outcome when we finish the meeting."
The fighting comes a day after a visit to the city by Maliki and an announcement late Monday by General Mohan al-Furayji, the Iraqi commander in charge of security in the south of Iraq, of a security operation throughout Basra province. Mohan, announcing an immediate and indefinite 10:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. curfew in the province, said the security sweep was designed to "impose the law and chase the criminals."
Vehicle access to Basra would be temporarily closed from neighbouring provinces during the evening hours from Wednesday and until Friday, he said, while teaching at schools and universities has been suspended from Tuesday until Thursday.
Basra businessman Mohammed al-Hajaj said troops had flooded the streets of the city on Monday night and that most people were remaining indoors on Tuesday. "All the Iraqi forces are out in the streets of the city," he said. "We heard shooting in the night and again this morning."
Hajaj said shops had closed at 10:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Monday when the curfew came into effect and the streets had emptied of people and vehicles.
Basra province was handed over to Iraqi control by British forces in mid-December.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
03/25/2008 10:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
I guess if the IA causes a full-out massacre, there will be nobody to complain to. They may be useful after all.
The remains of two U.S. contractors who were kidnapped in Iraq have been found, FBI officials said Monday.
The bureau identified the two as Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, abducted on January 5, 2007, and John Roy Young of Kansas City, Missouri, who was captured on November 16, 2006.
Withrow worked for Las Vegas, Nevada-based JPI Worldwide Inc., and Young worked for Crescent Security Group.
The FBI said it had notified the families of the contractors.
#2
When I left there in Oct, 25% of the KIA was said to have been contractors, that was over and above the figures released by DoD of the service men and women. I don't what the statistics on the wounded might be.
#3
25% is correct. Contactor deaths should be near 1000 now. Published stats don't break down the nationality of contractors.
AP: Nearly 800 Iraq contractors killed By the end of 2006, the Labor Department had quietly recorded 769 deaths and 3,367 injuries serious enough to require four or more days off the job.
Posted by: ed ||
03/25/2008 11:36 Comments ||
Top||
3 or 4 years old, the first time around it was reported to be taken during training mission near some lake here in Caliphornia. Full on Car Sex... Ima too old for dat anymore! :)
The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday's bombardment of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired the barrage of mortars and rockets. He said Iran was adding what he described as "lethal accelerants" to a very combustible mix. There has as yet been no response from Iran to the accusations.
In response to the news that 4,000 US military personnel have now been killed in Iraq, he said it showed how much the mission had cost but added that Americans were realistic about it. He also said a great deal of progress had been made because of the "flipping" of communities - the decision by Sunni tribes to turn against al-Qaeda militants. The extent of this had surprised even the US military, he said.
'Promises violated'
In an interview with BBC world affairs editor John Simpson, Gen Petraeus said violence in Iraq was being perpetuated by Iran's Quds Force, a branch of the Revolutionary Guards. The attacks led to 15 civilian deaths. "The rockets that were launched at the Green Zone yesterday, for example... were Iranian-provided, Iranian-made rockets," he said, adding that the groups that fired them were funded and trained by the Quds Force. "All of this in complete violation of promises made by President Ahmadinejad and the other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts."
The barrage hit the Green Zone on Sunday morning. Some rockets missed their targets killing 15 Iraqi civilians. Later in the day four US soldiers died when their patrol vehicle was blown up by a bomb in southern Baghdad, putting the total number of US fatalities above 4,000. This and other bloodshed on Sunday came despite an overall reduction in violence since last June, when the US deployed an extra 30,000 troops for the surge. Days earlier, Mr Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion, saying that it had made the world a better place.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: IRGC
#1
Iran needs some noise. Surge has been successful and McCain has made gains.
Iran would prefer a Democrat in the WH as their stated policy is to cut and run.
#5
I bet the destruction of one of their oil refineries every time we had reason to believe that they attacked us would put this to bed quickly. Why don't we show some balls and blow those turbans away.
(KUNA) -- Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Al-Boulani has survived an assassination attempt that inflicted damage in the vehicles of his motorcade, security officials announced on Monday. The officials said Boulani's motorcade was attacked by gunmen who sprayed vehicles of the convoy with intensive gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), late on Sunday, near Shatt Al-Arab causeway in the southern city of Basra, Iraq's second largest city.
Boulani was not hurt in the attack but several cars of the motorcade including military jeeps were damaged in the hit-and-run attack. Security personnel reinforcements were called in immediately after the botched bid on the life of the minister. The minister was on a mission in Basra to assess security conditions in the city that has become a top security preoccupation for the local leadership. The futile bid on the life of the senior official coincided with calls by senior local and US officials on the British forces serving in the greater Basra area to take action and stem mounting violence orchestrated by armed militias.
Britain has around 4,500 troops based at an air base outside the city. The Britons, last year, withdrew from the inner parts of the city following a wave of recurring attacks, and following arguments by local officials that their pull-out might help in bringing conditions under control. However, violence and disorder have recently spread in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: IRGC
(KUNA) -- The Iraqi government imposed Monday a curfew on Basra city after several acts of violence occurred there. Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and several high-ranking military officials also met in Basra today to discuss the security situation in the city. The National Defense Center announced that a full curfew would be imposed on the city until further notice. Security officials in Basra city affirmed that the curfew would enable the police and military to apprehend those behind tension in the city.
Meanwhile a statement by Maliki on Iraqi T.V. said that the city was under heavy pressure to disturb peace and security in the region, adding people behind the insecurity would be tracked down. Maliki's visit came after one from the missile attack which targeted the Interior Minister's convoy in the city. A recent statement by government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbag affirmed that security would be beefed up in the city to prepare against any attempts to unstable the situation in Basra.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: IRGC
#1
Iran seems to be paying for the bullets and beans.
First report: A new system deployed by the IDF in the Gaza-region enables soldiers stationed in the operations room to fire at Palestinian terrorists near the Gaza fence, Ynet has learned. The systems, which are equipped with a camera and a machine gun, enable soldiers to watch any activity that takes place near the fence and if necessary to fire at the push of a button. The new system will soon be officially declared "operational."
In recent months, the IDF Southern Command has integrated the system into its operational routine and instructed IDF field intelligence troops on using it. The system was developed by the Israel Armament Development Authority. At this time, one system has been deployed north of the Gaza Strip. Additional systems will be deployed along the fence in the near future. "The system is not supposed to replace soldiers on the ground, and it won't replace the need to charge at terrorists when necessary," an IDF official
said.
"We will be able to distinguish between terrorists and innocent civilians," another military official said. "We won't fire needlessly, yet at the same time we are responsible for protecting IDF soldiers. Beyond this, through the system we will be able to upgrade our abilities to identify the enemy and thwart attacks in a more effective manner."
Ever since IDF troops left the Gaza Strip, soldiers were able to thwart hundreds of attempts to breach the border fence and carry out attacks. However, IDF officials stress that terror groups are still highly motivated to carry out attacks, prompting the army to constantly improve its defenses.
Define "false". Personally I'd be willing to see my tax dollars spent on the ammo necessary to fire on anything larger than a mouse found crossing our southern border. Your false alarm is my intended feature. ;)
Five Jordanians are on trial in Amman on charges of spying on Israeli installations for Hamas.
Proceedings opened in a Jordanian military court Monday against five men accused of undergoing military training in a Hamas camp abroad and collecting information for the radical Palestinian Islamist group about Israeli border facilities. The defendants, two of whom are of Palestinian descent, are also accused of having received orders from Hamas to spy on the Israeli Embassy in Amman. They have denied all charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
INDONESIAN police say a body recovered in the Philippines is not that of a key Islamic militant wanted over the 2002 Bali bombings.
Philippine authorities had said the body was believed to be Dulmatin, who was thought to have been wounded in a clash with government troops in the region in January.
"The team has returned from the Philippines and we affirm that the exhumed body was not that of Dulmatin,'' the newspaper's website quoted Indonesian national police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam as saying.
The US Government has offered $US10 million ($11m) for Dulmatin, who was once a senior figure in the radical Jemaah Islamiah (JI) movement and is believed to have been hiding in the southern Philippines for the past five years.
Mr Alam said police would wait for DNA test results to be released by their Philippine counterparts for final confirmation that the body, found in a shallow grave on Tawi-Tawi island in February, did not belong to the militant.
Dulmatin is accused of helping JI plan and carry out the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people on the Indonesian holiday island, most of them foreign tourists.
Sidney Jones, an expert on JI, said last month that JI contacts in Indonesia would have likely known if Dulmatin was dead.
(Xinhua) -- Philippine police and military have thwarted an attack on government targets in southern region of Mindanao by the extremist bandits and Muslim anti-government militants, the police announced Monday.
The Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao cited intelligence sources saying that top leaders of the extremist group Abu Sayyaf and rogue Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) guerrillas loyal to their jailed chieftain Nur Misuari had plotted to raid military camps and ambush government troops in Sulu province.
Goltiao said it was the latest move taken by various anti-government forces to demand the release of Nur Misuari.
Abu Sayyaf militants and rogue separatist rebels, including those from the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), used to help and complement each other in battling government troops operating in their respective strongholds in Sulu archipelago and the main southern island of Mindanao.
Manila's troops, whose training is partly assisted by the United States, has stepped up the offensive to root out Abu Sayyaf,a listed terrorist organization by both American and Filipino governments, since the beginning of last year.
The military managed to bring down the number of Abu Sayyaf bandits to merely 370 at the end of 2007. A handful of rebel leaders were either arrested or killed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: MNLF
The Philippine Army officially admitted Monday that a Muslim cleric arrested in the island resort of Boracay in Aklan early this month, is currently under its custody. But Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres Jr., Army spokesman, belied reports that Muhammad Bani, 27, has been subjected to torture by his Army and police captors, as claimed by his family.
He probably wasn't. I wouldn't care in the least if he was.
Torres said that Banis arrest was a legitimate operation covered by an arrest warrant duly issued by the court. Bani, a Muslim cleric, and a friend Al-Midzbar Bunajal, 24, were arrested by a composite team from the Army Intelligence and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Boracay on March 8. Their arrest stemmed from persistent intelligence reports on the reported presence of Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the world-famed island resort.
But upon verifications Bunajal was released from Army custody two days later while Bani was subsequently detained at the Intelligence Service Group (ISG) at Fort Bonifacio. "Bani was detained because it was verified that he has a pending warrant for kidnapping charges filed before the Pasig City Regional Trial Court," Torres said.
He did not say however, if Bani and Bunajal were in Boracay to conduct terrorist attacks on foreign and local tourists flocking the famous island resort. The military has linked Bani to the 2001 Dos Palmas kidnapping staged by the homegrown terrorist group Abu Sayyaf. Banis brother Mahid claimed that he (Bani) showed signs of torture when they visited him at the detention facility of the ISG on March 17.
This article starring:
Jemaah Islamiyah
Al-Midzbar Bunajal
Abu Sayyaf
Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres
Muhammad Bani
Abu Sayyaf
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Abu Sayyaf
#1
Typical prison guard, chubby around the waistline.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/25/2008 8:06 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Am I the only one who saw that headline, and wondered, "since when do European wire services take prisoners?"
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/25/2008 9:31 Comments ||
Top||
At least 80 Tamil rebels and five government soldiers were killed in fresh fighting as Sri Lankan security forces tried to break into rebel-held territory, the defence ministry said Sunday.
Fierce battles raged in the north of the island as the military smashed through a bunker line of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) inflicting heavy casualties on the rebels, the ministry said. It raised the number of guerrillas killed in fighting since Saturday morning to 80 from the earlier figure of 22. The ministry added that the number of its troops killed had also risen to five. But the guerrillas said they resisted the military push and inflicted heavy losses on government forces.
A pro-rebel website said the Tigers had killed 55 troops and wounded another 120 in Saturdays fighting. The website did not give rebel casualties. Saturdays heavy fighting erupted hours after the Tigers sank a navy fast attack craft off the islands northeastern coast, leaving 10 sailors missing believed dead. Sri Lankan war planes bombed suspected LTTE facilities Saturday inside the area they control in the north of the island, the defence ministry said, adding that there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The government claims it has killed 2,322 rebels since January against the loss of 136 of its own troops. Colombo allows no journalists or rights groups into the embattled regions, making it impossible to verify the figures. Thousands of people have been killed in a new wave of fighting since December 2005, when a Norwegian-brokered truce began to unravel. The truce was formally ended by the government in January. The rebels have been battling for an independent homeland since 1972 in an ethnic conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
An Israeli soldier is suspected of supplying classified information to Hezbollah in exchange for drugs.
Police announced Monday that a noncommissioned officer serving as an infantry tracker along the Israel-Lebanon border was arrested last month on suspicion of spying for the Lebanese terrorist group. According to authorities, the soldier gave Hezbollah information on Israeli troop deployments along the frontier in exchange for its expedition of cross-border drug deals. Two other Israelis in custody are suspected of being involved in the alleged drug smuggling.
No personal details were immediately available on the arrested soldier other than that he lives in the Galilee area. Israel's military trackers generally are Bedouin Arabs.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/25/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
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.
Danish state prosecutors on Tuesday formally charged two men with plotting a bomb attack, saying they had manufactured and tested explosives.
By Aref Mohammed in Basra
Matthew Weaver and agencies 
The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday's bombardment of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired the barrage of mortars and rockets. He said Iran was adding what he described as "lethal accelerants" to a very combustible mix. There has as yet been no response from Iran to the accusations. 
First report: A new system deployed by the IDF in the Gaza-region enables soldiers stationed in the operations room to fire at Palestinian terrorists near the Gaza fence, Ynet has learned. The systems, which are equipped with a camera and a machine gun, enable soldiers to watch any activity that takes place near the fence and if necessary to fire at the push of a button. The new system will soon be officially declared "operational."
The Philippine Army officially admitted Monday that a Muslim cleric arrested in the island resort of Boracay in Aklan early this month, is currently under its custody. But 
